5TORY  Q^  AMERICA 

SKETCHED  '"SONNETS 


HENRY  FRANK 


f 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

SKETCHED   IN   SONNETS 


BY 

HENRY     FRANK 
\\ 

AUTHOR    OF    "THE    TRAGEDY    OP     HAMLET,"     "MODERN    LIGHT 

ON    IMMORTALITY,"     "PSYCHIC    PHENOMENA,     SCIENCE 

AND  IMMORTALITY,"  "THE  KINGDOM  OF  LOVE," 

"THE    TRIUMPH     OF    TRUTH,"     ETC. 


BOSTON 

SHERMAN,  FRENCH  &  COMPANY 
1912 


COPYRIGHT,  1911 
SHERMAN,  FRENCH  &•  COMPANY 


FORE  NOTE 

The  author  does  not  pretend  to  have  presented 
anything  like  a  continuous  or  complete  history  of 
the  Nation.  His  effort  has  been  to  seize  only  on 
the  salient  events  and  conspicuous  characters,  and 
to  weave  their  story  in  the  metric  setting  of  the 
sonnet  forms. 

He  believes,  however,  that  the  broad  contour  of 
the  Nation's  life  is  comprehended  within  the  pic- 
tures and  portraits  presented,  and  that  the  general 
reader  will  have  his  memory  rekindled  by  the  refer- 
ences to  the  great  events  comprised  by  the  poetic 
settings. 

The  appended  notes  are  merely  for  the  benefit 
of  the  general  reader  who  may  desire  to  know  more 
with  regard  to  the  references  made  than  could  be 
detailed  in  the  sonnets. 

If,  perchance,  the  author  may  have  struck  a 
genuine  note  of  patriotism  that  will  key  the  reader 
to  a  pitch  of  higher  enthusiasm  for  his  country's 
primal  principles  and  lofty  ideals,  he  will  be  hap- 
pily repaid  for  his  labor  of  love. 

HENRY  FRANK. 
New  York  City. 


CONTENTS 

PART  I 
THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD 

Page 

AMERICA i 

THE    NORSEMEN'S    DISCOVERY    OF    AMERI- 
CAN   CONTINENT 2 

COLUMBUS 3 

EARLY   SETTLERS 5 

FIRST  BRITISH   COLONISTS 6 

HENRIK    HUDSON 7 

THE  MAYFLOWER  AND  LANDING  OF  PIL- 
GRIMS     9 

FIRST  HERETICS  AND  SALEM  WITCHCRAFT  n 

FOUNDING  OF  MARYLAND    .......  13 

SPANISH  DISCOVERIES 14 

INTRODUCTION  OF  AFRICAN  SLAVERY    .     .  15 

PART  II 
THE  REVOLUTIONARY  PERIOD 

FRENCH   AND   INDIAN   WARS 19 

CROMWELL,  THE  FORERUNNER  OF  WASH- 
INGTON 20 


CONTENTS 

Page 

GEORGE  III 22 

THE  BOSTON   TEA   PARTY 23 

THE  REVOLUTION 25 

LEXINGTON  AND  CONCORD 26 

BATTLE  OF  BUNKER  HILL 27 

FALL  OF  TICONDEROGA 28 

DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  ....  29 

THOMAS  PAINE 31 

THE  BATTLE   OF  SARATOGA 33 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON 35 

NATHAN  HALE 37 

MARQUIS  DE  LAFAYETTE 38 

BENEDICT   ARNOLD 40 

SURRENDER  OF  CORNWALLIS 42 

PART  III 
THE  FOUNDING  OF  THE  REPUBLIC 

SHAYS'  REBELLION 45 

FORMATION  OF  THE  UNION 46 

THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION       .     .  48 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON 49 

ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 51 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 53 

PART  IV 

GROWTH  OF  THE  UNION 

AARON  BURR 57 


CONTENTS 

Page 

LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 58 

ANDREW  JACKSON 59 

WAR  OF  1812 , 61 

MEXICAN   WAR .     ....  63 

PART  V 
THE  PERIOD  OF  SLAVERY 

THE  OLIGARCH 67 

THE   AGITATION 69 

THE    ABOLITIONIST 70 

JOHN   BROWN 71 

JOHN  C.  CALHOUN 73 

DANIEL  WEBSTER 74 

HENRY  CLAY 76 

CHARLES  SUMNER 78 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 80 

ULYSSES  S.  GRANT 84 

ROBERT   E.   LEE 86 

GETTYSBURG 88 

APPOMATTOX  COURT  HOUSE 90 

RECONSTRUCTION  AND  REIGN  OF  TERROR  92 

THE  FRUITS  OF  VICTORY 94 


ROBERT   FULTON 97 

ELI  WHITNEY 99 


CONTENTS 

Page 

SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE 101 

THOMAS  A.  EDISON 102 

THE  NEW   WEST 104 

THE  AGE  OF  AGRICULTURE 105 

THE  AGE   OF  MANUFACTURE loC 

CAPTAINS  OF  INDUSTRY 108 

THE  NEW  SOUTH no 

PART  VII 
AGE  OF  WORLD  CONQUEST 

SPAIN   AND   COLUMBIA 114 

THE  VERDICT  AND  OUTLOOK  OF  OUR  HIS- 
TORY      117 

AMERICA  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  WORLD  .     .     .121 

PART  VIII 
HISTORICAL    NOTES .125 


PART  I 
THE  COLONIAL  PERIOD 


AMERICA 

I  SING  the  child  of  Freedom,  born  on  earth 
Of  bloody  conflict  and  time-woven  wrong; 
Now  grown  to  full  and  perfect  manhood,  strong 
In  pride,  in  spirit  virile,  proud  of  birth; — 
A  Nation,  whose  just  principles  engirth 
The  world,  and  all  mankind  inspire  with  song 
Of  justice,  human  rights  and  civic  worth, 
For    earth's    o'erwhelmed    and    despot-ridden 
throng ! 

America — last  born  of  nations,  young 
Yet  old  in  wisdom:  from  India's  mystic  soul, 
And  lofty  brain  of  Greece,  thy  spirit  sprung, 
Responds  with  hope  to  Sorrow's  age-long  toll. 
To  thee,  from  outmost  isle  and  distant  clime, 
Men  cry  for  rescue  from  the  wrongs  of  time! 


THE      NORSEMEN'S      DISCOVERY      OF 
AMERICAN  CONTINENT 

YOUNG  to  the  modern  world,  't  is  thousand 

years 

And  more,  since  Viking  bold  the  salt  sea  tore,1 
With  gargoyled  prow  from  Iceland's  frigid  shore, 
Past  Greenland,  where  are  piled  the  frosted  tears 
Of   gods  full   mountain-high,   to   where   earth 

bears 

The  grape  and  native  corn  (which  Danish  lore 
Hence     Vineland     named,     Red     Eric's     saga 

swears),2 
Now  known  as  famed  New  England's  rugged 

shore. 

Asleep,  this  rumored  world  for  centuries 

Lay,  nursed  by  dwellers  in  the  Mystic  Mounds,3 

Or  swarmed  by  heedless  aborigines, 

Since     Olaf's    men    displayed    their    trophied 

wounds. 
Though   last  revealed,   perchance   't   is   oldest 

world,4 
Since  compact  earth  from  fiery  mist  was  whirled. 

2 


COLUMBUS 

I 

ONCE  at  thy  feet,  Hispania,  cringed  the  known, 
O'er-mastered   earth;    whose   mute,   inglorious 

prey5 

Of  thy  insatiate  passion  abject  lay,6 
From  Pillars  of  the  East  to  setting  sun; — 
When  one,  whose  martial  genius  had  not  shone  7 
As  yet  amid  the  galaxy  of  those  who  slay 
Their  fellow  man  for  storied  fame,  did  pray, 
Nor  Ferdinand  or  Isabelle  would  shun 8 

His  overtures,  to  seek  far  India's  shore, 
Or  Asia's  flowery  realm  (his  mad  desire),9 
By  passage  over  western  seas,  which  ne'er  be- 
fore 

By  vessel's  keel  were  kissed.    The  fire 
Of  his  passion  waned  not  till,  amazed, 
He  found  his  prize,  then  homeward  turned — dis- 
praised!10 


COLUMBUS 

II 

Although,   Columbus,  thou  knewest  not  what 

boon11 

Thy  glorious  genius  wrought  for  humankind, 
Nor,  how  in  after  years  thy  fame  would  bind 
Far  continents  as  one,  and  moon  to  moon 
Would  sing  the  echoing,  triumphal  tune 
Of  thy  renown;  yet  must  thou  have  divined 
The  world's  acclaim,  in  History's  high  noon, 
Despite  Hidalgo's  hate  and  envious  mind.12 

A  New  World  to  the  Old  thou  gavest,  not 

Alone  because  vast  continents,  long  hid 

In  watery  wildernesses,  to  view  were  brought; 

But  that  the  wider  seas  of  mind  were  rid 

Of  mists  of  ignorance,  and  isles  arose 

To  harbor  Freedom  from  her  age-long  foes. 


EARLY  SETTLERS 

SWIFT  o'er  the  world  the  fleet-foot  couriers 

flew,13 

Proclaiming  fabled  wealth  beyond  the  sea, 
In  lands  from  dreaded  tread  of  white  man  free, 
Since  time  began.     The  age  impatient  grew; 
Cupidity  with  fevered  pulses  threw 
The  dice  of  fortune ;  and  with  madf ul  glee, 
Where    oceans    roared    and   howling   tempests 

blew, 
Adventured  all  on  fancied  victory. 

The  human  scum  was  swept  from  sea  of  life, 
And  garnered  as  the  tools  of  Fortune's  few, 
Who  ventured,  with  the  soldier's  zest  for  strife, 
To   conquer   Fate — what   masses   though   they 

slew; 
To  grip  more  wealth — the  prod  that  moves  the 

world — 
And  honor  thus  their  country's  flag  unfurled. 


FIRST  BRITISH  COLONISTS 

THE  swarthy  Spaniard  and  the  Briton  bold,14 
With  valorous  arms  a-blood  in  battle's  blow, 
The  glamour  of  their  power  each  vied  to  throw, 
Athwart  the  promised  land: — the  lure  of  gold, 
Beyond  the  latitude  of  temperate  cold, 
The  Spaniard  led ;  but  where  the  sleet  and  snow, 
With  beetling  front  of  ice  the  shoreways  hold, 
The  Briton  sought  his  prosperous  seed  to  sow. 

The  genius  of  Sir  Gilbert  Humphrey,  first16 
Misled  to  seek  the  northwest  flight  for  Ind, 
Inspired  one  his  age  both  blessed  and  cursed — 
.Sir   Walter   Raleigh — through    whose   brilliant 

mind, 

The  nation  yet  to  be  was  peopled  well 
With  scions  of  a  race  its  fate  foretell.16 


HENRIK  HUDSON 

I 

EGREGIOUS   Spain — with   wanton   thirst   for 

gold 

Far-reaching  o'er  the  world — on  Holland's  thrift 
Her  talons  fastened ;  then  with  sordid  shift " 
Dutch  wealth  deported  and  brave  freemen  sold, 
To  swell  her  alien  purse ;  till  Freedom  bold 
(Indignant  at  the  purloined  royal  gift), 
Empurpled,  with  her  myrmidon's  rich  blood,18 
The  dykes,  the  roaring  Zuyder  Zee  withstood. 

Redeemed  from  tyranny,  the  Netherlands  19 

Outvied  the  ancient  Ruler  of  the  Seas, 

And  sought  o'er  East  and  West  all  prosp'rous 

lands 

Her  bravest  mariners  espied ;  nor  breeze 
So  soft  or  gale  of  iciest  blast,  but  they 
Brought  thence  their  gift  for  Holland's  fairer 

day. 


HENRIK  HUDSON 

II 

'Mongst  those  who  braved  the  arctic  snows, 

for  course 80 

That  guided  to  far  Orient's  wealth,  and  fell 
By  chance  upon  a  Paradise,  whose  spell 
Forespoke  the  glory  ages  would  rehearse, 
Was  Henrik  Hudson.     With  hungry  crew  and 

sparse, 
And  many  a  venture,  he  found  the  stream  where 

dwell, 

To-day,  a  Nation's  millions,  who  still  nurse 
His  memory  in  mount  and  shadowy  dell. 

Bright  as  thy  splendid  soul,  brave  as  thy  heart, 
From  far  North  to  the  sea's  wide  arms,  still  flows 
Thy  river,  flanked  with  monumental  art, 
That  Nature   carved  in  rocks,   where  radiant 

glows 

The  orient  sun  on  palisades  that  rise, 
O'er-tapestried  with  tints  of  flaming  skies. 

8 


THE  MAYFLOWER  AND   LANDING  OF 
THE  PILGRIMS 

I 

AS  in  the  dewdrop's  tiny  breast  is  held 
The  broad  expanse  of  unhorizoned  skies, 
Sometimes  in  heart  of  simple  folk  there  lies 
The  vision  of  a  vaster  world  than  welled 
In  neighbor-souls ;  whose  magic  hath  impelled 
To  utmost  deeds  of  grandeur,  till  they  despise 
Their  fate,  and,   once  their  ancient  fears  are 

quelled, 
Dare  challenge  Death  with  dauntless  enterprise. 

Such  was  the  Pilgrim  Band,  a  hundred  strong,21 
That  British  tyranny  and  churchly  curse 
Drove  first  to  Holland's  shores;  thence  (voyage 

long),22 

Through  bitter  seas  and  icy  blasts,  did  nurse 
The  hope  that  God  would  guide  them  to  a  land, 
Where  they  might  serve  Him  void  of  culprit's 

brand. 


THE  MAYFLOWER  AND   LANDING  OF 
THE  PILGRIMS 

II 

Heroic  souls  were  they  that  little  boat 
Brought  to   New  England's  bleak  and   stony 

strand, 

Miles  Standish,  Brewster — leader  of  the  band — 
John  Alden,  Mary  Chilton  (who  did  gloat 
That  first  they  touched  the  rock),  whence  soon 

should  float 

A  flag  earth's  bloodiest  despots  would  withstand : 
Unterrified  the  Bigot's  power  they  smote,23 
Whose  curse  had  long  prevailed  in  many  a  land.24 

Stern  as  the  rugged  shores  to  which  they  fled, 
Their  hearts  as  virile  as  the  virgin  oak 
They  clove  with  iron  arms ;  with  tears  unshed 
Amid  the  bitterest  strifes ;  such  were  the  folk, 
Untutored  and  alone,  who  grandly  bore 
Their  banner  brave  to  Freedom's  waiting  shore. 


10 


FIRST     HERETICS     AND    THE     SALEM 
WITCHCRAFT 

I 

T  WAS  blood  that  flowed  from  British  veins 

and  shaped 

The  destiny  of  this  fair  land  (by  fate 
Preserved    from   sluggish   Southern   mind   and 

hate 

Of  cleric  jealousy),  which  thus  escaped 
The  tyranny  of  Church  and  Creed,  that  draped 
The  Old  World  long  in  gloom,  and  here  first 

State 

And  Church  dissevered;  nor  customs  aped 
Of  dual  despotisms  obdurate. 

And  yet  one  looms  supreme  in  that  far  age, 
To  teach  us  Freedom  is  not  always  free ; 86 
For  Puritan,  who  in  religious  rage 
Fled  the  oppressor's  power,  like  liberty 
Denied  Sir  Roger  Williams,  who  but  sought 
To  think  as  freely  as  the  others  taught. 

ii 


FIRST    HERETICS    AND     THE     SALEM 
WITCHCRAFT 

II 

Thus  early  Superstition's  snapping  teeth 
Bit  fiercely  at  the  towering  forms  of  men, 
And  women,  too,  like  famous  Anne ;  whose  pen 26 
And  voice  denounced  intolerance,  and  death 
Defied.     Anon  it  roused  from  sleeping  sheath, 
The  vengeful  sword  should  smite  the  witch's 

"sin," 
New  England's  conscience  palled  with  Satan's 

breath, 
That  lured  enfeebled  women  to  his  den. 

Nowhere  hath  human  inhumanity 

So  cruelly  display'd  the  Bigot's  curse, 

As  witnessed  in  the  tragi-comedy, 

That  Salem  records  shamefully  rehearse.27 

From  such  base  depths  of  pious  infamy 

Hath  man  recoiled  to  worship  Liberty! 


12 


FOUNDING  OF  MARYLAND 

WHILST  protestant  and  papal  prelate  fought 
On  English  soil  for  regnancy,  till,  shorn 
Of  power,  the  crown  from  kingly  brow  was  torn ; 
Colonial  sectaries  were  not  less  wrought 
With  mutual  contention,  as  each  sought, 
Or  Puritan  or  Cavalier  (o'erborne 
By  bigotry),  the  harsh,  intolerant  lot, 
Inquisitors  impose  on  foes  forlorn. 

But  to  the  honor  of  Lord  Baltimore 28 
Of  Maryland,  the  voice  of  History  proclaims, 
He  first  of  royal  governors  devoutly  swore 
That  freedom  should  prevail  through  his  do- 
mains. 

'T  was  Catholic  rule,  by  irony  of  fate, 
That  led  to  severance  of  Church  and  State. 


SPANISH  DISCOVERIES 

VORACIOUS  hunger  and  insatiable  greed 
For  gold  (that  shone  on  Eldorado's  breast, 
Awaiting  but  adventurers'  eager  zest), 
Inspired  Espafia's  desp'rate  sons  to  speed 
Their  silken  sails  and  seize  for  King  and  Creed, 
The  fabled  seat  of  Paradise;  whose  quest 
Enrolled  Vespucci,  time  hath  since  agreed, 
Should  name  the  land  Columbus  first  caressed.29 

Of  white  men  first  Balboa  gazed  upon 
Pacific's  placid  breast;  and  with  delight 
De  Leon  dallied,  searching  where  the  sun 
Disclosed  death-conq'ring  springs,  in  vain ;  whilst 

sight 

Of  land  Pascua  de  flares  blessed,  he  named 80 
Like  to  her  flowers,  Florida,  far-famed. 


THE     INTRODUCTION     OF     AFRICAN 
SLAVERY 

(1620  A.D.) 

ERE  yet  in  birth  the  Nation  travailed  sore, 
A  slender  form  insidious  shadow  threw81 
Athwart  the  land,  anon  so  monstrous  grew, 
It  lay  anhungered,  waiting  at  the  door 
Of  Liberty,  to  rend  the  breast  that  bore 
The  infant-hope  of  humankind;  though  few, 
Discerning,  did  the  evil  form  deplore, 
Demanding  power  its  head  from  trunk  to  hew! 

Unslain,    unscotched,    the    Monster's    hideous 

thews, 

The  Nation's  body,  like  Laocoon's, 
Encircled,  till  outsprawled  mid  southern  dews, 
It  mocked  the  trembling  fears  of  Freedom's  sons. 
O  ill-prophetic  day,  when  from  the  waves 
Virginia  first  received  her  Afric  slaves! 


PART  II 
THE    REVOLUTIONARY    PERIOD 


FRENCH  AND  INDIAN  WARS 

'T  WAS  Anglo-Saxon  grit  and  British  blood 
Ordained  the  destiny  of  Freedom's  birth, 
When  'twixt  the  Romance  strain  and  British 

worth, 

The  wage  was  cast,  nor  long  the  fates  withstood. 
For  Spaniards  south  and  French  a-north,  with 

brood 

Of  Indians,  fell  fast  to  reddened  earth, 
Or  fled  distraught  before  the  fiery  flood 
Of  British  shot,  that  widened  England's  girth. 

When  Montcalm  fell  on  Quebec  heights  and 

Wolfe, 

On  field  of  victory,  the  plan  of  Pitt 
Had   triumphed   o'er  the   French   from   Mexic 

gulf82 

To  where  the  mighty  lakes  in  grandeur  sit. 
Thus  Anglo-Saxon  blood  and  virile  force 
Foreshadowed     young     Columbia's     conq'ring 

course. 


CROMWELL,    THE    FORERUNNER    OF 
WASHINGTON 

I 

RUDE  stature,  cast  in  clay-and-iron  mold, 
Immortal  regicide  and  friend  of  man, — 
Whose  genius  caught  the  scope  of  Freedom's 

plan — 

Herculean  Oliver !    Thy  thousand-fold, 
Heroic  deeds  the  monarchies  of  old 
O'erwhelmed,  and  kings  dethroned.     Thy  stub- 
born clan — 

Redoubted  Ironsides — with  damning  ban 
Hurled   'gainst   the   crime-acquiring  power   of 
gold, 

(Like  cleansing  thunder-clap  from  heaven  sent, 
Down-clamoring  from  mountain  height  to  glen), 
The  rotting  citadel  of  government 
Crushed  ruthlessly;  whilst  thou,  with  austere 

men, 

Howbe't  declared  a  god,  denounced  insane, 
Earth's  yeomanry  redeemed  from  royal  bane. 

20 


CROMWELL,    THE    FORERUNNER    OF 
WASHINGTON 

II 

If,  erst,  thou  hadst  not  smote,  'neath  White- 
hall's spires, 

The  rising  serpent  on  the  soil  (whose  fang 
Bit  unsuspecting  ploughmen  as  they  sang, 
In  ignorance,  its  charms),  perhaps  the  fires 
Which  now  from  Freedom's  hilltops  wake  the 

lyres 

Of  her  sons,  had  not  yet  blazed ;  nor  rang 
The  shout  of  joy  from  our  Colonial  sires, 
When  Liberty  from  lowly  subjects  sprang. 

All  faint  and  flickering  its  light  hath  shone, 
Since  primal  passions  of  the  human  breast 
Spurred  men  to  seek  the  courses  of  the  sun, 
Who,  oft  deceived,  pursued  a  glow-worm's  crest ; 
Till  thou  the  Torch  upbore  and  hurled  it  on, 
To  guide  the  destiny  of  Washington ! 


21 


GEORGE  III 

TO  thee  let  universal  thanks  be  sung, 

Thou   fool  'mongst   despots  and   plaything   of 

time!33 

Thy  praise  let  pamphleteers  in  prose  and  rhyme 
Disport,    from   whom   the    Child    of    Freedom 

sprung. 

Without  thy  churlish  temper,  and  thy  young 
And  childish  jealousy, — thy  wish  to  climb 
Supreme  among  the  monarchs  of  thy  time, 
O'er  whom  thy  proud,  defiant  banners  flung, — 

Perhaps  fair  Liberty  had  yet  been  held 
Imprisoned  by  the  walls  of  ancient  fear ; 
Perhaps  had  Pitt  thy  riotous  passions  quelled, 
Mankind  might  yet  the  despot's  curses  bear. 
God's  fools  are  human  blessings  in  disguise, 
Who  oft  have  sodden  souls  made  brave  and  wise. 


22 


THE  BOSTON  TEA  PARTY 

I 

SINCE  men  the  sense  of  liberty  discerned, 
Cabals  of  government  (from  primal  days 
Of  civilization  to  tyranny's  dark  ways, 
Though  oft  their  vulgar  robberies  were  spurned 
By  Freedom's  sons),  have  little  wisdom  learned. 
Thus  pompous  kings   (whose  flagrant  wealth 

displays 

Their  love  of  luxury  and  wanton  ease  unearned), 
Their  passion  oft  with  vampire-thirst  betrays. 

And  British  royalists  thus  blindly  proved, 
They  wot  not  how  the  love  of  liberty 
Had  patriots  oft  to  desperation  moved, 
When  with  sardonic  tax  they  shipped  their  tea 
To  Boston's  shore,  'neath  Britain's  flag  unfurled, 
And  roused  a  storm  whose  billows  swept  the 
world. 


THE  BOSTON  TEA  PARTY 

II 

Nor  loftier  valor  in  her  palmiest  days, 
Or  splendid  strategy  of  practiced  mind, 
Had  Greece  displayed  than  these  rude  plough- 
men, blind 

To  consequences,  when,  athwart  the  quays, 
In  Mohawk  guise,  all  void  of  riotous  craze, 
They  hurled  the  fragrant  cargo  to  the  wind,34 
And  sought  alone  the  waves'  redounding  praise, 
Encoring  the  wild  plaudits  of  mankind! 

Then  o'er  the  ramparts  first  fair  Liberty 
Her  blood-stained  banner  hoist  against  the  brow 
Of  heaven,  and  with  her  vibrant  prophecy 
Awoke  the  world's  oppressed,  relit  the  glow 
Of  Hope's  once  smouldering  torch,  and  smote 

the  lyre, 
Whose  fervor  thrills  the   souls   of  Freedom's 

choir. 


24 


THE  REVOLUTION 

WHEN  once  the  fires  burst  in  patriots'  breasts, 
That  kindled  armies  from  the  dust ;  when  last 
Insult  of  Crown  and  Laws'  oppression  passed 
All  'durance — Fate  bespoke  her  stern  behests: 
No  compromise  or  paltering  requests 
Now  sate  the  Sons  of  Freedom ;  they  boldly  cast 
Their  lot,  all  heedless  of  the  gory  crests 
Of  war  that  boom  the  shores  with  shatt'ring 
blast! 

Then  pigmies  sprung  to  giants'  power :  a  child, 
But  yesterday  among  the  nations,  rose 
To  sudden  manhood,  whose  youthfulness  be- 
guiled 

The  practiced  armies  of  the  Crown  to  throes 
Of  blinding  struggle  and  defense,  and  won 
Undying  fame  with  sword  and  belching  gun. 


LEXINGTON  AND  CONCORD 

AT  Lexington  and  Concord  first  was  heard 
The  startling  volley  echoing  round  the  world, 
That  beggarly,  intrepid  warriors  hurled 
Against  an  Empire.     Now  that  Freedom  stirred 
The  Age  on  every  hand,  the  magic  word 
"To  arms!"  roused  patriots  (with  flag  unfurled, 
And  fife  and  drum)  to  taunt  the  foe  they  feared 
Yet  braved,  howe'er  their  ranks  were  torn  and 
whirled. 

Undaunted,  now,  and  'boldened  by  the  lust 
Of  liberty,  they  challenge,  with  their  lives,86 
The  bursting  bullets  of  the  foe,  and  trust 
Alone  in  God;  whilst  half  unarmed  each  strives 
For  triumph,  as  ill-fed  their  wasted  forms 
Lie  bleeding  and  exposed  in  winter's  storms. 


26 


BATTLE  OF  BUNKER  HILL 

A  NATION  bloody-baptized  at  its  birth, 
Shames  not  with  mem'ry  of  its  first  defeat ; 86 
Whose  heroes,  forced  by  fate,  in  calm  retreat 
Defied  the  foe,  and  proved,  though  plagued  with 

dirth 

Of  arms,  they  shirked  nor  fled  the  blinding  sheet 
Of  flame,  that  swept  the  battle-field's  red  girth; 
But  braved  the  bullets  falling  like  hot  sleet 
Around  them,  as  they  charged  with  maddening 

mirth. 

Dismayed,  cried  Howe,  chagrined:  "Nor  Fon- 

tenoy 87 

Or  Minden  e'er  such  fire  saw  from  belching  gun, 
As  these  staunch  yeomen,  with  impetuous  joy, 
Poured  forth  beneath  that  burning  summer  sun !" 
'T  was  there,  in  glorious  defeat,  the  Free 
First  heard  a  cannon  sing  for  liberty. 


27 


FALL  OF  TICONDEROGA 

WHEN  Poverty  her  bony  finger  lay 

On  these  ill-clad,  bedraggled  ranks,  who  fought 

Unarmed,  unfed;  grim  Desperation  wrought 

A  miracle  one  morn  at  break  of  day, 

When  Allen,  sword  in  hand  with  victor's  sway, 

Ticonderoga's  instant  fall  besought ; 38 

Whose  officer,  affrighted,  with  dismay 

The  fortress  yielded,  unfended  and  unfought. 

'T  was  here  first  fell  the  British  standards  low, 
And  cheered  the  wearied  troops  with  prophecy, 
That  Justice  would  her  dauntless  prowess  throw 
Athwart  their  armies,  through  whose  victory 
A  Nation  soon  would  be  begot,  whose  proud, 
Defiant  flag  would  prove  the  Despot's  shroud. 


28 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

I 

THE  while  their  triumphs  ragged  patriots 
On  gory  fields  achieved,  as  ardent  souls, 
In  legislative  halls,  the  magic  scrolls 
Of  liberty  inscribed ;  whose  daring  thought 39 
Each  Age's  conscience  still  awakes  (else  rots), 
When  inhumanity  its  scourge  o'er  rolls 
On  human  hearts,  and  stains  with  lurid  spots 
Fair  Freedom's  breast,  the  hope  of  man  extols. 

Once  spurred  to  snap  the  bonds  of  royalty, 
And  Independence  absolute  achieve; 
To  pluck  the  age-sunk  roots  of  tyranny, 
And  time-wrought  wrongs  from  vested  usage 

cleave ; 

They,  madly  dashing  like  the  whelming  tide, 
Expunged  the  sovereignty  of  regal  pride. 


29 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

II 

With  pen  defiant  they  dashed  to  earth  their 

dread ; 

Hurled  madly  from  its  pedestal,  the  lead- 
Enstatued  form  of  George,  and  molded  it M 
To  bullets,  which  like  hissing  serpents  hit 
The  scattered  foe,  whilst  consternation  spread 
Where'er  was  heard  the  rebel's  thunderous  tread. 
Men  swore  that  nevermore  should  Tyrant  sit 
On  throne,  who  spurns  his  subjects'  plea  for 

bread. 

The  cry  that  inarticulate  first  fell 
From  Abel's  lips  against  the  oppressor's  scourge, 
At  last  full-syllabled,  with  resonant  swell, 
Resounds    to    heaven    like    ocean's    thund'ring 

surge. 

The  clarion  note  rings  down  the  grooves  of  time, 
Redeeming  men  from  wrong  and  social  crime ! 


THOMAS  PAINE 

IMPERIOUS  intellect  and  dauntless  foe 41 
Of  frand  in  Church  or  State;  immortal  friend 
Of  Man  and  Champion  of  Truth ;  did'st  spend 
Thy  life  to  spread  o'er  earth  the  splendid  glow 
Of  Liberty's  bright  torch ;  thy  hand  did  throw 
The  seed  in  Freedom's  soil  that  yet  would  'fend 
Mankind,  and  cause  a  glorious  tree  to  grow, 
Whose  fruitage  ne'er  would  Despot  durst  to 
rend! 

Thou  first,  with  cry  for  Independence,  roused  ** 
The  sluggish  councils  to  their  work;  thou  first 
Prescribed  the  Constitution's  form,  and  housed  *3 
A  People!     E'en  though  vilifiers  cursed 
Thy  fame,  to  thee  our  fair  Republic  owes 
Its  birth,  who  stayed  it  in  its  natal  throes. 


THOMAS  PAINE 

II 

Two  governments  once  vied  to  honor  thee, 
When  like  a  whirling  flame,  with  righteous  hate 
Of  tyrannies,  thy  love  of  Liberty 
Swept  thee  to  France  (her  cherished  deputy) 
To  help  consume  the  fruit  of  baneful  fate, 
And  on  her  blistered  soil  uphold  the  Free, 
Who  hoped  to  found  like  ours  a  People's  State, 
Redeemed  from  Monarch's  sway  on  land  and  sea. 

'T  was  not  thy  destiny  the  world's  acclaim 

To  hear;  naught  but  the  curse  of  crowns  and 

smirch 

Of  infamy,  the  prison-cell,  and  shame 
Of  felon's  fate  (by  grace  of  state  and  church) 
Were  thine,   who  holp'dst  benighted   Man  to 

free:44 
Who,  freed,  disdained  thee  with  indignity! 


THE  BATTLE  OF  SARATOGA 

I 

BUT  ere  the  Nation  shall  its  birthright  prove, 
It  must  needs  sail  baptismal  seas  of  blood : 
What  boots  it  to  proclaim  in  fiery  mood 
Its  boast  of  liberty  and  freedom's  love, 
Whilst  Burgoyne's  bristling  grenadiers  above 
Canadian  ramparts  loom,  and  Clinton's  brood45 
Of  practiced  warriors,  with  stealthy  move,  46 
May  dash  its  hopes  in  battle's  reddening  flood? 

The  serried  hosts  have  clashed:  Burgoyne  dis- 
traught, 

His  troups  outnumbered,  anhungered  and  for- 
lorn,47 

Ere  Clinton  came,  dishevelled  and  outfought, 
Succumbed  to  fate  and  Tories'  withering  scorn. 
The  day  is  won ;  and  from  war's  bursting  breast 
A  Nation  bounds  o'er  Freedom's  billowy  crest. 


33 


THE  BATTLE  OF  SARATOGA 

II 

Yet,  erst,  defeat  was  fate  of  valorous  hosts, 
That  fell  before  the  torrent  sweep  of  arms, 
Which   British   prowess   swayed,    athwart   the 

farms 

And  rude  embattlements  of  Northern  coasts, 
Where   Burgoyne's   army,   spurred  by  blatant 

boasts  " 

And  braggadocio,  heedless  of  alarms, 
Gave  hope  the  Rebels  would  desert  their  posts, 
And,  horror-struck,  lay  down  their  rustic  arms. 

But    British    scorn    soon    turned    to    British 

shame : — 

The  laughter  of  the  loyalists  and  sneers 
Contemptuous  of  foes,  when  Victory  came 
To  warrior-patriots,  aroused  the  cheers 
Of  all  mankind,  who  hailed  a  Nation  born 
At  Saratoga  on  that  fateful  morn.49 


34 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

I 

HAIL,  Champion  of  justice,  paragon 

Of  nobles*,  virtues  and  of  patriot's  pride, 50 

Whose  stalwart  scorn  of  British  rule  defied 

The  power  its  puissant  arms  had  won, 

And  reared,  blood-built,  beneath  this  western 

sun 

(The  sacred  gift  of  those  who  bravely  died), 
A  citadel  whose  firm  base  rests  upon 
Foundations  that  eternally  abide. 

Blessed  is  a  land  o'er-topped  with  character, 
Supreme  in  goodness  and  in  wisdom's  strength, 
Whose  splendor  spreads  athwart  horizons  far ; 
And  o'er  the  tides  (that  urge  through  breadth 

and  length 

Of  surging  seas  which  bank  against  the  world), 
Reveals  the  banner  Freedom  hath  unfurled. 


35 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

II 

Thy  Genius  prompts  our  hearts  and  spurs  our 

brains, 

To  acts  deliberate  and  with  thoughts  mature ; 
When  else  had  Impulse  oft  to  deeds  impure, 
Impelled  us  on  with  Passion's  fiery  reins; 
Thy  Wisdom's  heritage  our  boon  remains, 
Which  oft  from  ambush-laden  roadway  leads 
The  Coach  of  State  (entrapped)  to  fairer  plains, 
Where  Justice  calmly  guides  the  sober'd  steeds. 

O  brightest  star  in  yon  bright  galaxy 

Of  glorious  names  the  firmament  displays, 

America  supremely  owes  to  thee 

Her  century  and  more  of  honored  days. 

May  thy  imposing  name  without  surcease 

Throughout  the  world  her  majesty  increase ! 


NATHAN  HALE 

HEROIC,  fond,  ill-fated  patriot,61 
Who  gave  thy  young  life  for  thy  Country's  weal, 
When  Duty  called  for  courage  that  would  reel 
Nor  halt  in  face  of  foe  or  hail  of  shot! 
When  from  his  ranks  great  Washington  be- 
sought 
Some  dauntless  soul,  with  cunning  wit  would 

steal 

The  enemy's  secrets  and  their  plans  reveal, 
At  once  the  challenge  of  the  direful  lot 
Appealed  to  thee. 

By  ignominious  death, 
The  brutal  foe  thy  glory  thought  to  shame ; 
But,  like  an  oriflamme,  thy  dying  breath 
Far-flung  these  golden  words  on  wings  of  fame : 
"Had   I   more   lives,   my   Country,   they   were 

thine  !M 
Such  acts  abide  immortal  and  divine. 


37 


MARQUIS  DE  LAFAYETTE 

I 

WHEN  tongue  of  liberty  with  cannon-roar, 
Resounded  through  the  earth  and  roused  man- 
kind, 

From  stolid  servitude  and  stupor  blind, 
To  Freedom's  call  from  far  New  England  shore, 
'Mongst  those  who  came  and  royal  signets  wore 
(When  courage  waned  and  warriors  repined), 
To  spur  them   on  through  battle's  thick'ning 

gore, 
Was  Lafayette,  brave  friend  of  humankind.62 

Where  find  in  all  the  annals  of  the  race 
A  life  more  nobly  sacrificed  to  truth? 
Though  born  to  fortune  and  to  favoring  grace, 
So  burned  his  spirit  (yet  a  callow  youth), 
With  love  of  Liberty,  he  scorned  the  hand, 
Would  honor  him  within  his  native  land. 


MARQUIS  DE  LAFAYETTE 

II 

He  knew  the  gods  awaited  such  an  hour — 
The  crucial  moment  in  the  destiny 
Of  Man — when  could  but  grip  of  Tyranny 
The  Patriot's  sword  once  loose,  ne'er  more  such 

power 
O'er  earth  accursed  would  spread  from  sea  to 

sea; 

But  Fate,  by  dint  of  Freedom's  civic  dower, 
Would  bless  the  world  with  joys  of  liberty 
And   progress,   ne'er   to   despots   more   would 

cower. 

Yet  though  his  veins  with  rebel  blood  ran  red, 
As  stern  conservator  of  human  weal, 
When  the  fair  breast  of  France  was  torn  and  bled 
With  Revolution's  blast,  he  drew  his  steel 
'Gainst  foes  who  posed  as  Freedom's  friends, 

with  art 
As  keen  and  dauntless  as  a  Bonaparte ! 


39 


BENEDICT  ARNOLD 

I 

NOT  void  of  drama's  thrilling  denouement,68 
Evolves  the  story  of  those  bloody  days, 
When  vengeance,  jealousy  and  treach'rous  ways, 
Inspired  some  who  sang,  with  brazen  tongue, 
Perfervid    tunes    that    roused    the    trembling 

throng ; 

Till,  covered  by  the  guns  below  the  quays 
Of  Charleston,  Clinton  stealth'ly  crept  along 
And  capturing  it  compelled  their  sullen  lays. 

The  South  now  at  his  mercy  lay;  could  he 
But  gain  a  northern  point  that  vantaged  far 
As  Canada's  outposts,  't  were  victory 
Assured,  and  Washington's  now  waning  star 
Soon  set!     'T  was  then  that  to  his  waiting  ear 
The  Tempter  came  with  plot  he  well  might  fear. 


40 


BENEDICT  ARNOLD 

II 

Though  dashing,  brilliant,  brave  and  prosperous, 
And  brightly  cynosured  his  star  of  fame, 
Ill-born  was  Arnold  whose  now  blighted  name 
Is  twinned  with  Judas  in  deeds  infamous. 
Humiliation  stung  his  breast,  and  thus 
For  Vengeance'  sake  and  reckless  of  all  shame, 
With  venal  end  and  spirit  venomous, 
He   staked  his   country   in  War's  mad-fought 
game. 

Commanding,  now,  at  West  Point's  fortressed 

hill, 

Into  his  net  ill-fated  Andre  fell, 
Self-sentenced,  mourned,  condoned  e'en  mildly 

still, 

By  all  who  pity  whom  misfortunes  quell. 
Yet  Justice  is  avenged;  for  British  gold 
Befouled  the  fame  that  Arnold  vainly  sold! 


SURRENDER  OF  CORNWALLIS 

WHEN  seven  Summers  their  bleeding  length 

had  drawn54 

Athwart  the  plains  of  war,  anon,  't  was  done : 
Across  the  belching  mouth  of  murd'rous  gun, 
Fair  Peace  her  white  hands  laid  and  hailed  the 

dawn; 
On  fields,  where  patriots'  lives  had  oft  been 

sawn 

By  Battle's  gory  scythe,  rose  Freedom's  sun. 
When  his  brave  sword  the  valorous  Washington 
At  Yorktown  sheathed,  ne'er  more 't  was  drawn. 

The  earth,  impregnant  with  the  bloody  seed 
Of  lives  implanted  in  her  breast,  brought  forth 
A  flower — fair  Liberty — no  vulgar  weed 
Shall  blight  in  any  clime,  or  south  or  north: 
Her  blossoms  prophesy  a  Paradise, 
The  world  shall  yet  disport  beneath  the  skies. 


42 


PART  III 
FOUNDING  OF  THE  REPUBLIC 


SHAYS'  REBELLION 

WHEN  silenced  were  the  raucous  guns  of  war, 
And  Peace  o'er  all  the  land  her  mantle  spread, 
Still  sorrier  were  the  battles  fought  for  bread — 
The  grind  of  poverty  that  lay  in  store 
For  those  on  whom  the  weight  of  debt  now 

bore ; — 

Till  courts  and  legislative  halls  more  dread 
Inspired,  than  once  the  fall  of  British  tread, 
And  mobs  enraged  that  sordid  vengeance  swore. 

What  better,  courts  of  law  than  British  guns,66 
To  forge  again  the  manacles  of  slaves? 
Far  better  Freedom  sank  with  setting  suns, 
Than  freemen  yield  to  Sheriff's  mace  and  staves ! 
"To  arms!"  cried  Shays,  and  madly  mocked  the 

power, 
At    length    mankind    endued    with    Freedom's 

dower. 


45 


FORMATION  OF  THE  UNION 

I 

ALAS !  though  Freedom,  once  within  the  hand B6 
Of  stalwart  warriors  is  held,  too  oft 
Forgetful  of  her  charge  (when  Peace,  with  soft. 
Seductive  pipes  the  pulses  of  the  land 
Retards),  they  sleep  unheedful  of  the  wand 
That  waves  them  on  to  distances  aloft, 
Where  hardier  muscles  of  a  deathless  band 
Must  reach  the  heights  and  scorn  the  crowds  that 
scoffed. 

Thus  first  within  Delilah's  luring  lap 67 

The  Victors  lay,  shorn  of  their  pristine  strength ; 

And  dull  Indifference  did  almost  sap 

The  vigorous  veins,  that  once  throughout  the 

length 
Of    staunch     Columbia's    frame    with     ardor 

throbbed, 
Till  patriots  were  of  their  rude  virtue  robbed.60 


46 


FORMATION  OF  THE  UNION 

II 

"What  shame,"  moaned  Washington,  "that  Free- 
men fail 

To  honor  Liberty  with  tithe  of  time 
Her  maintenance  demands,  within  a  clime 
Whence  Tyranny  has  fled,  and  where  the  trail 
Of  Fortune  fast  invites  both  firm  and  frail!" 
Yet,  e'en  despite  their  jarring  notes,  the  chime 69 
Of  clamorous  bells  bespeaks  melodic  rhyme, 
Whose  anthem  shall  some  day  the  world  assail. 

The  storm  fell  full  on  Philadelphia's  brow, 
When  molders  of  the  Constitution  came, 
Who  feared  the  sun  of  Liberty  might  set,60 
And  lawlessness  besmirch  the  land  with  shame. 
But  fairer  Destiny  did  shape  the  end, 
And  our  proud  land  from  Anarchy  defend.61 


47 


THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION 

(Philadelphia,  1787) 

WHAT  governmental  form  in  this  far  Wild,62 
Would  spring  from  strifes  provincial,   selfish, 

crude — 

What  virus  in  the  civic  veins  include — 
Might  rob  a  body  politic,  self-styled 
Republic ;  what  tragic  evils  mountain-piled, 
O'er-shadowing  peace  and  hope ; — none,  then  so 

shrewd 

To  see ;  yet  there  the  poison  lay,  though  mild, 
On  future  ages  would  its  blight  obtrude ! 

Shall  States  supreme  in  council  be,  or   ONE,63 
The  bond  that  holds  them  all  in  Unity? 
Shall  here  a  NATION  find  its  birth,  or  none 
But  straggling  states  avouch  for  Liberty? 
This  problem,  all  their  wisdom  then  withstood, 
Some  day  the  land  would  whelm  with  battles' 
flood. 


48 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

I 

THE  fabric  of  the  law,  by  which  our  land 
Her  glorious  fame  upholds,  to  Madison, 
The  father  of  the  Constitution,  son 
Of  fair  Virginia,  we  owe.     But  grand 
Immunities  of  Freedom — stalwart  stand 
Of  staunch  Democracy — were  later  won 
By  him  who  fought  with  brave  and  single  hand, 
The  treach'rous  web  that  vain  unwisdom  spun. 

Ingenious  Jefferson,  thy  cunning  wit,6* 

Thy  human  sympathy,  prophetic  eye, 

Such  institutions  sought  whose  benefit 

No  single  People  should  comprise,  but  high 

As  heaven,  wide  as  earth,  would  spread  their 

power, 
Till  all  mankind  partook  of  Freedom's  dower. 


49 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

II 

Maligned  by  Tory  and  Aristocrat,65 
Thy  spirit  heard  the  voice  of  Liberty 
With  Revolution's  song  awake  the  Free, 
And  scorned  the  Age's  scorn  of  Democrat! 
From  France,  whose  loins  oft  Freedom's  son  be- 
gat, 

Returning  swiftly  o'er  the  troubl'd  sea, 
Thy  heart  aflame  with  dream  of  Victory, 
Spurred  on  the  sword  to  strike  where  Despots 
sat. 

Nor  orator  or  poet  (since  begun 

The  pen  of  man  to  waken  souls  of  men 

To  sense  of  Human  Rights  'neath  every  sun)66 

Hath  so  inspired  hope  nor  can  again. 

As  long  as  Freedom  shall  her  sons  caress, 

They  will  thy  name  immortalize  and  bless. 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

I 

WHEN    Peace,    her    soothing   banners    softly 

waved 

Above  the  silenced  battlements  of  war, 
And  bleeding  embryons  in  travail  tore 
The  Nation's  breast  at  birth ;  men  craved  m 
For  statesmanship  and  wisdom  undepraved, 
Th'  accouchement  would  aid  and  health  restore : 
Yet  who  of  those  the  Country's  flag  had  saved, 
Could  heal  in  peace  the  crimson'd  wounds  of 

war?68 

When  Debt  its  crushing  weight  on  Poverty 
Increased,  and  Vict'ry,  helpless  as  defeat, 
Lay  gasping,  scoffed  by  mocking  irony, 
And  some  feared  Freedom  would  itself  unseat, 
The  Nation  sprung  intact,  and  wonder  won, 
From  brain  and  genius  of  young  Hamilton.69 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

II 

A  war-worn  youth  of  thirty — schooled  in  life, 
(With  statesman's  wit  and  tongue  of  orator 
And  genius  surfeited  with  Wisdom's  lore), 
The  Ship  of  State,  through  bloody  seas  of  strife 
And  war's  depletion,  piloted,  though  rife 
For  anarchy  and  wild  disunion's  score. 
He  towered  like  a  beetling  Teneriffe 
Above  the  blinding  mists  of  ocean's  roar. 

In  spirit  though  a  Monarchist,  he  won 
The  solidarity  of  States  and  saved, 
From  demagogue  and  vulgar  charlatan, 
A  people  whom  despair  almost  depraved: 
When  Burr's  avenging  aim  its  target  found,70 
It  proved  to  be  the  Nation's  King  uncrowned.71 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

I 

SAGE  of  two  worlds;  illuminating  star 
Of  wisdom;  rare,  encyclopaedic  mind,72 
Whose  towering  genius,  masterful  but  kind, 
Sought  Freedom's  birth  on  these  wild  shores 

afar, 

And  calmly  closed  the  mouthy  lips  of  war : 73 
In  all  her  annals  where  shall  history  find 
One  as  befitting  Fame's  beleaguered  car, 
In  whom  the  gods  all  human  wit  combined? 

From  humblest  origin  to  high  renown 
His  talents  shine  unequalled  on  life's  stage; 
Than  whom  no  hero  wears  a  nobler  crown, 
Or  name  more  luminous  on  storied  page; 
He  stole  the  secret  terror  of  the  skies, 
And  snapped  the  sword  of  sceptred  tyrannies! 


53 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 

II 

His  simple  precepts  into  proverbs  run, 
Himself  inspiring  as  myriads  since, 
To  rise  from  depths  of  social  shame  and  thence 
To  moral  heights  e'en  saints  have  not  outdone. 
As  shines  athwart  the  world  the  dazzling  sun, 
O'ershadowing  the  lesser  lights,  this  prince 
Of  wit  and  wisdom,  where  his  glory  shone, 
O'erblazed  with  splendor  of  beneficence. 

To  Franklin  mankind  owes  a  deathless  debt, 

As  wide  as  reaches  of  the  elements, 

Whose  vast  achievements  man  can  ne'er  forget, 

Whilst  comfort  waits  what  human  skill  invents; 

In  every  field  of  knowledge,  art  and  toil, 

His  genius  rose  supreme  in  sky  and  soil.74 


54 


PART  IV 
GROWTH  OF  THE  UNION 


AARON  BURR 

AS  when  a  leopard,  mad  with  rage,  upon 
A  lion  leaps,  his  crunching  teeth  red-dipped 
In  's  veins  till  all  the  fluid  's  sipped: 
So  Burr  had  crushed  the  kingly  Hamilton. 
Nathless,  Ambition  spurred  his  spirit  on 
To  challenge  Fate,  until  of  honor  stripped, 
He  sought,  in  vain,  where  sinks  the  setting  sun,76 
The  prize  of  Empire  his  fingers  almost  gripped. 

f 

A  daring  personality,  and  brain 
All  scintillant,  he  fell  like  Lucifer,78 
Dishonored  and  besmirched  with  blighting  stain ; 
Though  once  coquettish  Fortune  hoist  his  star 
Among  the  brighter  magnitudes,  and  claimed 
For  him  the  highest  post  the  people  yet  had 
named. 


57 


LOUISIANA  PURCHASE 

HOW    often   Judgment   throws   th*    ungainful 

dice, 

Whilst  Destiny  with  keen  precision  plays! 
Though  oft  a  statesman  wisdom  rare  displays, 
More  oft  he  yields  to  Destiny's  device : 
Few  then  discerned  at  what  a  meager  price 
Great  Bonaparte  released  an  Empire's  ways,77 
Whence  myriads  whom  Freedom  would  entice, 
Columbia's  prowess  through  the  world  would 

blaze. 

By  deft  diplomacy,  our  Nation  won 

A  trophy,  richer  than  Napoleon's  sword 

For  France  e'er  wrung  'neath  many  a  bleeding 

sun: 

A  giant  lay  asleep,  unseen,  unheard, 
Within  that  vast  domain — whom  magic  powers 
Awoke — and  now  all  humankind  o'ertowers. 


ANDREW  JACKSON 

I 

A  CRUDE,  uncultured  stature  of  the  plains, 
Reared  'midst  the  frontier  hills  where  sheer  brute 

force 

And  dogged,  iron  will,  an  Empire's  course 
Predestined,  Jackson  rose  unsmirched  by  stains 
Of  pristine  passions  that  sway  the  heart  and 

brains 

Of  pioneers ;  conspicuous  for  terse, 
Laconic  honesty,  that  ne'er  refrains 
From  obligations  howe'er  the  mob  may  curse. 

When  in  his  breast  a  hot  conviction  burned, 
It  ate  the  marrow  of  his  soul;  nor  all 
The  powers  of  heaven  or  hell  his  purpose  turned, 
Though  on  his  head  the  weight  of  suns  should 

fall. 

The  foe  of  wealth  by  crime  intrenched,  he  smote 
The   hands   thrust   out   to   seize   the   Nation's 

throat!78 


59 


ANDREW  JACKSON 

II 

Convinced    that    Federal    Sovereignty    should 

reign 

Unchallenged,  that  the  Union  might  be  strong ; 79 
At  Carolina's  proud,  embattled  throng 
He  hurled  defiance  and  forestalled  the  stain 
Else  had  disgraced  our  Country's  flag.    And 

fain, 

When  Scandal  piped  its  venomed  voice  to  wrong 
A  woman,  his  chivalry  fought  not  in  vain,80 
Himself  howbeit  slurred  with  slanderous  tongue. 

Though  impulse  oft  his  reason  roiled,  and  blind, 
Unguided  passion  his  better  judgment  bent, 
His  heart  was  true  as  purest  gold  refined, 
His  breast  unmarred  by  mercenary  dent ; 
He  stood  the  Sponsor  of  a  Moral  Right, 
When  Priv'lege  menaced  with  appalling  might.81 


60 


WAR    OF    EIGHTEEN    HUNDRED    AND 
TWELVE 

I 

LET  truth  be  told  though  wounded  pride  pro- 
test:—82 

Ambitious  plot  and  sway  of  Avarice  bold, 
Too  clear  the  trace  of  infamy  enscrolled, 
With  selfish  play  of  partisan  behest,83 
Upon  the  Nation's  once  exalted  breast: — 
We  vainly  laud  our  heroes,  paean  tolled 
Upon  a  thousand  tongues,  who  spurned  the  bold, 
Insulting  plot  of  England's  naval  test. 

Perhaps  'tis  vengeance  sweet  to  win  by  wit 
Of  trenchant  art  Decatur,  Perry,  Scott84 
And  Jackson  swayed,  with  genius  infinite; — 
'T  were  nobler  course,  untouch'd  with  crimson 

spot 

Of  shame,  had  we  but  heeded  Wisdom's  way, 
And  prov'd  with  pen  the  mind's  superior  sway. 


61 


WAR    OF    EIGHTEEN    HUNDRED    AND 
TWELVE 

II 

Yet 't  was  not  writ  in  human  destiny,86 

That  Freedom's  rugged  child  should  yield  to 

blows, 

E'en  smitten  by  a  giant;  howbeit  the  throes 
Of  war  enhanced  domestic  treachery, 
That  bitterly  harassed  on  land  and  sea 
Columbia's  forces  from  Canadian  snows, 
To  southern  swamps;  with  skilful  artistry 
Conveying  moral  strength  t'  environing  foes. 

'T  was  fortunate  that  final  peace  prevailed, 
Ere  piqued  New  England's  voice,  with  loud  pro- 
test,86 

Awakened  civil  strife,  or  ere  assailed 
The  government  that  scoffed  at  her  behest. 
Our  seamen's  prowess  even  England  praised — 
Whose  ships  were  shattered  where  their  broad- 
sides blazed. 


62 


MEXICAN  WAR 

I 
WHERE   heave   the   tepid   waves   of   Mexic's 

gulf,87 

Toward  Rio  Grande  and  the  westering  sun, 
(By  war's  arbitrament  the  Union  won 
With  lavished  lives  and  gathered  to  itself, 
Yet  not  without  suspicion  of  vain  pelf), 
Lay  Texas — her  own  freedom  long  since  won, 
When  Houston,  fiercer  than  an  hungry  wolf, 
Rent  Santa  Anna's  troops  with  thund'rous  gun. 

Yet  Mexico  alone  her  freedom  scorned, 

And   scourged   her  that   she   cried  for   succor 

strong ; 

Nor,  though  Columbia's  serried  armies  warned, 
Withdrew  till  War's  blood-thickened  battle-song 
From  Vera  Cruz  to  Matamoras  rang, 
With   havoc   wrought   by   cannon's   murd'rous 

clang. 


MEXICAN  WAR 

II 

Yet  not  unsmirched  the  martial  triumph  nailed  88 
The  lone-star  banner  to  the  starry  flag! 
For  not  with  crippled  foot  did  Intrigue  lag, 
As  Jackson  schemed  and  Houston's  arms  as- 
sailed, 

When  Tyler  and  the  Slave-South  gladly  hailed 
An  empire,  with   whose  power  their  tongues 

might  wag 

Defiance  at  the  North's  disdain,  whose  mailed 
Fist  yet  might  force  the  Southern  cause  to  drag. 

Howbeit  the  bloody  issue  swelled  the  host 
Of  westering  States  to  California's  strand, 
With  Texas  wrenched  from  Mexic's  wreaking 

hand: — 

The  Union,  nigh,  at  retribution's  cost, 
Was  severed,  when  fierce  judgment  fell  malign, 
On  that  dread  curse  some  blindly  called  divine. 


64 


PART  V 

THE  PERIOD  OF  SLAVERY 
1838-1860 


THE  OLIGARCH 

I 

SINCE  Freedom  first  in  sanguine  soils  her  seed 
Hath  sown,  whose  hope  the  heart  of  man  sus- 
tains, 

And  watered  it  with  blood  of  patriots'  veins, 
Grim  Slavery  hath  followed  with  fell  speed, 
To  blight  the  earth  with  mildew  of  man's  greed ; 
And  e'en  Columbia's  Eden  fouled  with  stains 
Of  inhumanity, — for  brutal  creed 
That  bartered  human  souls  for  soulless  gains. 

This  age-pursuing  scourge  of  Liberty, 

Now  that  her  promised  Paradise  was  nigh, 

As  if  some  usurpatious  deity, 

Proclaimed    itself    supreme    'twixt    earth    and 

sky: — 

"Whoso  denies  that  Slavery  is  of  God, 
Shall  lose  his  life  and  rot  beneath  the  sod !" 


67 


THE  OLIGARCH 

II 

Thus  roared  the  pompous  Oligarch  whose  spell 

The  land  o'er-awed  with  fear;  whose  majesty 

Would  vie  with  courts  of  ermined  royalty, 

And  feast  on  privilege  to  buy  and  sell 

In  every  mart  the  "chattel  slave,"  whose  fell 

Is  badge  of  servitude,  humanity 

Hath  cursed  in  every  age !     Who  shall  repel 

The  swelling  surge  of  this  dark  tyranny? 

It  makes  the  laws,  it  binds  the  courts,  it  chains 

Not  only  slave,  but  citizen  who  dares 

Revolt  against  such  criminating  stains 

Of  infamy,  and  scornfully  declares 

That  whoso  shall  attempt  to  free  the  slave 

Shall  lie  accurst  within  a  traitor's  grave.89 


68 


THE  AGITATION 

BUT  far  and  near  prophetic  mutterings 
Bespoke  the  surging  tide  would  sweep 
The  bloody  crests  of  war  and  wake  the  springs 
Of  manhood.     Turner  and  his  brave  men  creep 90 
From  house  to  house  and  belch  their  slaughter- 
ings 

On  fifty  thresholds  red ;  whilst  Whittier  sings 
His  anthems  of  the  free,  and  they  that  sleep 
Awake  when  Phillips'  words  of  fire  leap.91 

T'  appease  the  Monster's  appetite,  new  laws 
By  truculent  tools  are  made,  that  fiercer  still, 
With  silenced   Press  and  Speech,  its  crimson 

.    claws 
Might  tear  out  Freedom's  heart  with  wanton 

will! 
When    Congress    stooped   to    Atherton's   bold 

"gag,"  92 
The  last  base  blow  was  struck  at  Freedom's  flag. 


69 


THE  ABOLITIONIST 

BUT  once  the  Nation's  slumb'ring  conscience 

woke, 

To  heed  the  thund'rous  pleas  of  Garrison, 
Beshamed  at  echo  of  the  murd'rous  gun 
That  felled  Lovejoy,  and  felt  the  brutal  stroke  w 
On  Summer's  crown;  the  primal  passions  broke 
From  breasts  refined,  and  visages  grew  dun 
With  rage;   and  in  the  flame  of  smould'ring 

smoke, 
Men  read  the  prophecy  of  war  begun. 

Now  on  his  vested  throne  the  Cavalier 
The  angry  blows  of  Puritan  returns; 
Whilst  Abolitionist  who  knows  no  fear 
Defies  the  power  his  rankled  conscience  spurns. 
The  ruesome  music  of  slave's  rusted  chains 
Has  roused  the  world  to  stop  its  harrowing 
strains. 


70 


JOHN  BROWN94 

I 

THE  tearing  teeth  of  Slavery  deep  bit 
Into  the  Nation's  frame  with  festering 
Ferocity,  and  left  it  quivering 
With  sense  of  shame,  and  void  of  voice  yet  fit 
To  answer  to  the  call  of  Freedom's  wit: — 
Where  were  the  heroes  from  the  soil  would 

spring, 

And  from  the  Monster's  hand,  which  now  did  sit 
On  Freedom's  throne,  his  sceptred  power  wring? 

Like  stricken  patient  the  great  country  lay 
Within  the  grip  of  pestilential  fear, 
Nor  one  so  bold  with  martyr-heart  durst  say, 
"  'T  were  better   Death   with  liveried   shroud 

should  bear 

The  form  of  Liberty  to  her  last  home, 
Than   falsely   float   her   flag    from    Freedom's 

dome!" 


JOHN  BROWN 

II 

Then  burst  a  meteor  'thwart  the  sky  of  fate, 
That  set  the  world  afire,  the  Nation  thrilled 
With  fear  or  joy,  and  stirred  faint  hearts — long 

chilled 
With    Slavery's    blighting    touch — with    hope 

(though  late) 

That  tardy  Justice  would  no  longer  wait, 
Nor  halt  till  Falsehood's  trumpet  tones  were 

stilled:— 

For  lo !  incensed  'gainst  wrong,  infuriate, 
His   brave    blood    Brown    at    Harper's    Ferry 

spilled. 

A  madman's  act?  a  fool's  inspir'd  wit? 
A  blow  would  beat  the  ocean  from  its  shores? 
A  hand  would  tear  the  stars  from  where  they  sit, 
Or  from  their  hinges  hurl  Time's  weather'd 

doors? 

Perhaps.     Still  mid  the  choral  joys  that  drown 
Earth's  woes  high  rings  the  hymn  to  old  John 

Brown ! 
72 


JOHN  C.  CALHOUN 

I 

FOREMOST  among  the  thinkers  of  his  Age,96 

Profound  in  Constitutional  debate, 

Whose  keen  foresight  foretold  his  Southland's 

fate, 

If  once  the  manumitted  slaves  in  rage 
Upon  their  masters  turned ;  he  sought  to  gage 
Her  counsels;  more  rigidly  to  solidate 
Her  unity;  e'en  to  the  parlous  stage 
Of  Federal  defiance  by  the  State. 

Preeminent  philosopher,  whose  far 
Foresight  discerned  the  dangers  would  ensue, 
If  corporate  powers  round  the  Nation's  star96 
Like  satellites  assembled,  alone  he  threw 
His  glove  at  the  dark  Giant  he  saw  tower 
Athwart    the    Country's   breast   with    ominous 
power. 


73 


JOHN  C.  CALHOUN 

II 

Though  foe  of  compromise,  had  he  foreseen 
A  decade  hence  his  iron  logic  forced 
To  its  inevitable  end,  and  nursed 
By  circumstances,  whose  fell  edge  as  keen 
As  Damascus  blade  drove  violently  'tween 
The  joints  of  armored  States,  from  peace  di- 
vorced ; 

Would  he  the  Union  joyously  have  seen 
Dismantled,  than  by  stubborn  arms  coerced? 

Sincere  his  spirit,  though  sinister  the  fate 
Befell  his  fame  despite  his  honest  heart. 
With  Roman  courage,  at  the  threatened  gate 
Of  Liberty,  a  sentinel  apart 
He  stood,  and  yet  unwittingly  urged  on 
The  blow  himself  most  caused,  when  he  had 
gone ! 


74 


DANIEL  WEBSTER 

I 

LIKE  granite  silhouette  against  the  skies, 
He  towered  bravely  o'er  the  stormy  tide, 
Uprolling  from  the  Southern  shores  t'  o'er-ride 
Revolt  of  reason,  convinced  what  victories 
For  Freedom  won  were  vain,  if  liberties 
A  wedge  inject  that,  spreading  ever  wide, 
Shall  snap  into  its  primal  unities 
The  compact  Union,  once  a  People's  pride. 

With  Demosthenean  eloquence  he  plead,97 
Unmastered  e'en  when  Calhoun's  ponderous  wit 
Or  Hayne's  defiance  sneered  at  Northern  blood, 
And  sought  to  dim  the  torch  that  Freedom  lit : — 
"The  strength  of  liberty  in  Union  lay ; — 
Once  shattered,  War  would  have  its  endless 
way." 


75 


DANIEL  WEBSTER 

II 

Had  he  but  been  incarnate  Conscience  bold, — M 
Where'er  Iniquity's  protaean  head  arose, 
Had  struck  all  reckless  of  the  dragon's  pose; — 
Undimmed  had  Time  his  deathless  name  en- 
scrolled. 

But  when  Revenge  besought  him  to  withhold 
(For  sweet  Ambition's  sake)  the  words  he  chose 
Should  rather  on  his  lips  defend  his  old 
Constituency,  he  yielded  to  their  foes! 

With  broken  heart  he  heard  the  surging  wail 
Of  grim  Atlantic's  waves  against  the  shores: — 
He  cast  his  lot  with  demagogues  who  quail 
At  light  of  day  and  seek  to  even  scores 
With   fancied   foes.    A   statesman's   crown  he 

won, 
But  sullied  as  the  mist-encircled  sun. 


76 


HENRY  CLAY 

I 

COMMANDING  intellect,  whose  genius  held  " 
The  balance  'twixt  conflicting  issues  calm; 
Within  a  Nation's  wounds  the  healing  balm 
Of  compromise  serenely  pouring ;  quelled 
Oft  the  audacious  claims  had  else  impelled  10° 
The  clash  of  arms  and  shock  of  bloody  qualm, 
Ere  Justice  had  discerned  the  Right,  or  welled 
Her  powers  to  crush  pretentious  pomp  and  sham. 

Three  times  the  "Great  Pacificator,"  thrice 101 
Defeated  for  Chief  Magistrate,  restrained 
The  fiery  passions  whose  impetuous  rise 
Anon  the  fratricidal  war  ordained. 
His  heart  consumed  with  patriot's  loyalty, 
His  lips  burned  eloquent  for  liberty. 


77 


HENRY  CLAY 

II 

Originator  of  the  Feudal  Tax, 
That  barred  from  imposition  on  our  shores 
Competitive  and  labor-crushing  stores, 
(The  mightier  nations  strove  without  relax 
To  force  within  our  gates),  his  wisdom  scores 
Historic  credit;  for  now  wealth  doth  wax108 
Exceeding  swift  within  our  bounds,  and  pours 
An  endless  stream  from  source  that  never  lacks. 

But  could  he  since  its  evil  trend  behold, 

Of  which  he  sought  his  compeers  to  convince,103 

Since  buccaneers  have  with  rapacious  hold 

Impoverished  the  mass,  would  he  not  wince 

(Who  held  mankind  in  loftiest  esteem), 

At  such  perversion  of  his  golden  dream? 


CHARLES  SUMNER 

I 

A  GREATER  son  than  Webster  from  the  loins 
Of  Massachusetts  sprung,  when  Conscience  came 
Incarnate  in  the  soul  of  Sumner's  name ; 104 
Whose  radiant  honor  still  untainted  shines, 
As  when,  with  stately  but  invective  lines, 
He  tore  the  mantle  from  a  Nation's  shame, 
And  marked  the  sore  that  festered  in  its  groins, 
Till  anger  wrapped  his  foes  in  blinding  flame. 

Yet  not  the  murd'rous  blow  of  Brooks,  nor  all m 
The  echo  of  demoniac  applause, 
Could  paralyze  the  tongue  or  wreak  the  fall 
Of  one  who  championed  a  noble  cause! 
Though  serving  well  an  age  corrupt  and  bane, 
His  was  a  patriot's  heart  devoid  of  stain. 


79 


CHARLES  SUMNER 

II 

The  fearless  though  fanatic  friend  of  slaves, 

To  wrench  their  chains,  e'en  to  his  dying  day 

He  fought  relentlessly,  with  vast  array 

Of  erudition ;  yet  when  bloody  waves 108 

Of  war  dissolved,  he  held  not  them  as  knaves, 

Who  lay  defeated,  but  lovingly  did  pray 

That     Mercy    grant    what    wounded    Honor 

craves : — 
To  alter  flags  that  memoried  the  fray.107 

And   when,   at   topmost   height    of   fame,   he 

thought 

The  Nation's  Chief  false  to  his  lofty  pledge,108 
Another  Nathan  he  durst  pierce  the  plot, 
Despite  the  painful  blow  of  Censure's  sledge, 
E'en  friends  swift  swung  and  sorrowed  for  anon ; 
Though  he,  unchiding,  deathless  honor  won. 


80 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

I 

TALL,  sombre  and  sedate,  o'er-looms 
Thy  frame  'gainst  Time's  receding  skies — a  god, 
Whom  Destiny  hath  hoist  from  squalid  sod, 
To  seat  of  power  whose  fadeless  splendor  dims 
Th'  unmerited  glory  of  Fame's  pandered  grooms, 
Whom  Fortune  favored  but  Penury  ne'er  prod. 
Why  soars  thy  haloed  spirit  o'er  the  tombs 
Of  heroes  men  have  long  oblivious  trod? 

Because  thy  martyred  blood  is  seed  of  life, 
Implants  the  hope  in  lowliest  'mongst  men, 
That  Peace  and  Justice  shall  arise  o'er  strife, 
And  guided  for  mankind  by  Wisdom's  pen, 
Shall  ne'er  more  suffer  wrongs  disguised  and 

rife, 
To  shackle  souls  in  labor's  lowly  den.109 


81 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

II 

Thou  first — no  less  a  prophet  of  thy  time, 
Then  savior  of  the  slaves  of  humankind — 
Foresaw'st  the  menace  fraught  with  malice  blind, 
That  masters,  drunk  with  wealth  and  Fortune's 

wine, 
Would  men,  though  freed,  condemn  to  bestial 

grind 110 

Of  ceaseless  toil,  in  slum  and  social  slime: 
Thou  knewest  surfeited  with  gold  men  find, 
In  gold  their  only  god  in  every  clime ! 

'T  was  thou  who  first  among  out  statesmen  saw 
The  false  affront  of  sordid  wealth  to  toil: — 
Thy  pen  proclaimed  equality  at  law,111 
For  jeweled  garb  and  gaberdine  of  moil ; 
That  whoso  owns  by  wage  a  workman  free,118 
Maintains  disguised  the  scourge  of  slavery ! 


82 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

III 

'T  is  not  alone  that  swarthy  millions  from 
Thy  hands  the  guerdon  of  their  freedom  took, 
Which  they  themselves  wot  not  nor  aught  be- 

sook; 

Nor  that  the  Union  wouldst  maintain  with  sum 
Of  purchase-price   for  slaves  enfreed,   though 

glum 

And  sullen  hordes  loud  roared  for  war,  and  shook 
The  Nation  with  embattled  throes,  till  hum 
Of  industry  the  ravished  land  forsook. 

Not  these  alone  for  thee  thy  laurels  won, 
Ere  bleeding  there  thy  martyred  body  lay; 
But  that  thou  first,  within  the  roseate  dawn 
Of  peace,  discern'st  the  fast  approaching  fray 
'Twixt  idle  wealth  and  fruitful  toil,  and  warned 118 
The    age    beware    if    thy    grim    words    were 
scorned.114 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

IV 

Hail  first  and  foremost  Plain  American,116 
Whose  mournful  eye  and  heart  of  sympathy, 
Instinct  with  sense  of  human  liberty, 
Foresaw  the  forefront  of  the  Higher  Man: — 
A  race  of  souls  would  smite  the  scourging  ban 
Of  false  and  social  disequality 
'Twixt  men,  once  equal  born  'tween  sky  and  sea, 
And  build  the  brotherhood  of  human  clan! 

Through  butt  of  ridicule  and  vengeful  scorn, 
Like  ocean  rock  unshook  by  seething  tide, 
Thy  presence  loomed,  the  hope  of  earth's  for- 
lorn, 

Nor  barrier  found  the  humblest  in  thy  pride. 
Not  Afric's  chains  alone  dissolved  in  air, 
When  Destiny  submitted  to  thy  care ! 116 


84 


ULYSSES  S.  GRANT 

I 

WHEN  at  the  Nation's  throat  the  insane  arm 

Of  fratricidal  passion  flung  its  dire, 

Destructive  weapon  of  avenging  fire, 

And  Freedom,  warned,  with  quavering  alarm, 

Appealed  for  heroes  'gainst  th'  impending  harm, 

Among  the  hosts  (whose  valorous  desire 

For  patriot's  glory  and  the  gory  charm 

Of  war,  did  their  adventurous  breasts  inspire). 

Came  one  of  humble  birth  and  wasted  youth,117 
Whose  stars  ordained  his  magical  appraise 
Of  martial  strength,  the  fates  to  slay  were  loath ; 
Who  rescued,  from  the  labyrinthian  maze 
Of  brainless  tactics,  almost  a  fallen  Cause ; 
Whose   genius  forced  the  world  in  praise  to 
pause. 


ULYSSES  S.  GRANT 

II 

When  o'er  the  federal  flags  the  glowering  cloud 
Of  menacing  defeat  lay  quick  to  burst 
With    blighting    breath,    he,    with    unslakened 

thirst 

For  victory  in  's  veins,  undaunted,  proud 
Of  conscious  prowess, — restive  and  uncowed, — 
At  Donaldson  with  far  foresight  the  first 
Strategic  conquest  won,  and  thence  swift  mowed 
The  fleeing  foe  o'erwhelmed  with  fate  accurst. 

At  Shilo,  Corinth,  Vicksburg,  and  at  last 

At  Appomattox,  his  untarnished  star 

On  every  field  unwonted  glory  cast.118 

But  though  his  fame  outcrowed  the  blare  of  war, 

It  sank  to  feeble  notes  mid  civic  frays,119 

Nor  e'er  regained  the  strength  of  martial  praise. 


86 


ROBERT  E.  LEE 

I 

MORE  valiant  soldier  ne'er  drew  breath,  nor 

slew 

A  foe  with  tenderer  heart,  whom  Duty  spurred 
His  native  state  to  'fend,  when  Honor  stirred  12° 
His  spirit,  and  the  Southland  bravely  threw 
Her  gauntlet  at  the  North,  than  he  who  knew, 
Whate'er  his  fate,  false  interest  had  not  blurred 
His  judgment,  when  his  sword,  and  soul  as  true, 
Responded  to  a  call  his  conscience  heard. 

Though  doomed  to  ruin  and  defeat  his  name, 

Resplendent  shines  amid  the  galaxy, 

Of  valorous  heroes  trumpeted  by  Fame, 

To  failure  destined  or  to  victory. 

His  lofty  manhood  and  his  courtly  grace 

Shone  forth  benignly  from  his  noble  face. 


ROBERT  E.  LEE 

II 

Magnanimous,  his  conqueror  refrained 
To  humble  him  in  eyes  of  all  the  world, 
Who  on  a  hundred  hard-fought  fields  had 

whirled 

Embattled  wings,  that  unexpected  gained 
Proud  victory,  when  hope  had  almost  waned ; 
Nor  e'er  discouraged  his  brave  banner  furled, 
Till  the  last  drop  of  patriot's  blood  had  stained 
It,  in  defiance  'gainst  a  nation  hurled. 

Eke  soldier,  scholar  and  philosopher, 

He  doffed  the  sword  to  don  the  cap  and  gown,181 

And  won  with  grace  and  ease  his  courtly  spur 

In  classic  tilt,  as  on  the  bloody  down. 

E'en  though  his  sword  on  battle  field  had  failed, 

His  soul  in  nobler  victory  prevailed. 


88 


GETTYSBURG 

I 

HOW  doubtful  and  unloaded  are  the  dice 
Of  war,  was  ne'er  more  vividly  displayed 
Than  when  at  Gettysburg  the  vast  arrayed 
Confederate  and  Federal  hosts,  in  vise 
Of  mountain-fastnesses,  the  bitter  price 
Of  battle's  bloody  fruit  to  Fortune  paid : 
When  Meade  was  dull  to  victory's  advice, 
Whilst  Lee  deplored  his  rash  and  costly  raid.122 

Almost  to  pinnacle  of  triumph  borne, 

The  South,  aroused  by  all  the  world's  acclaim, 

And  spurred  by  victories  severely  torn 

From  Northern  arms,  would  now  her  valiant 

name 

Within  the  welcome  woof  of  nations  weave, 
And  her  proud  breast  of  Failure's  scorn  relieve. 


89 


GETTYSBURG 

II 

'T  was  not  in  stars  of  destiny  so  writ: 
A  broader  and  still  bloodier  battle  trail 
Must  they  pursue  who  parry  blow  for  blow, 
In  jealous  leadership  and  martial  wit, 
And  bury  thousands  in  the  gory  pit. 
Nor  Burnsides'  bleeding  hosts  that  fell  below 
The  guns  of  Fredericksburg,  nor  flames  that  spit 
From  Seminary  Ridge  on  fleeing  foe, 

For  North   or  South  the  conqu'ring  dice  yet 

threw : 

The  fell  and  fatal  scourge  of  war  must  sweep 
Still  fairer  lands — still  hotter  passions  brew, 
Till  Anger  and  Revenge  their  harvest  reap. 
With    forty    thousand    souls    the    North    here 

wrought 
Its  rescue  from  the  clutch  that  Lee  had  sought. 


90 


APPOMATTOX  COURT  HOUSE 

I 

AS  clouds  sometimes  begloom  a  golden  morn, 
Grim  o'er  the  mustering  hosts  of  Lee  that  day,123 
The  fell  funereal  shroud  of  failure  lay, 
When,  hemmed  by  Sheridan  and  Grant,  forlorn 
His  hope,  his  hosts  with  rage  and  anger  torn, 
Still  like  a  wounded  beast  when  held  at  bay, 
He  hurled  upon  the  foe  with  withering  scorn 
His  tatter 'd  remnants  challenged  to  the  fray. 

Unconscious  of  his  fate  he  madly  fought, 
Till  Destiny  his  dauntless  spirit  broke: 
On  bloody  fields  his  prowess  had  not  wrought 
The  triumph  of  that  Cause  his  genius  woke. 
At  length  upon  his  saddened  ear  there  fell 
The  sound  of  his  fond  Southland's  solemn  knell. 


APPOMATTOX  COURT  HOUSE 

II 

Dull  o'er  the  dolorous  land  the  painful  thud 
Of  Failure's  final  volley  fell  unheard; 
The  smell  of  smould'ring  fields  no  longer  stirred 
The    falt'ring   hosts — their   banners   trailed    in 

mud — 

Now  eager  only  for  the  comfort  could 
Be  found  in  winding  arms  of  love,  who  gird 
Their  loins  for  lowlier  ambitions'  sway, 
Now  free  from  where  the  deadly  bullet  whirred. 

How  futile,  frail  and  false,  the  passions'  moods, 
That  in  their  maelstrom  oft  enswirl  an  age ! 
Had  Wisdom  but  prevailed,  the  fiery  floods 
Had  ne'er  from  human  veins  been  shed  in  rage ; 
Nor  had  four  seething  years  of  savagery 
Prevailed  to  blast  the  scourge  of  slavery. 


92 


RECONSTRUCTION  AND  REIGN  OF 
TERROR 

I 

SCORCHED  by  the  furnaces  of  blistering  war, 
Her  soil  denuded  of  its  golden  locks, 
Her  breast  still  quaking  with  convulsive  shocks, 
Athwart  her  frame  the  gash  of  many  a  scar, 
The  South,  with  ghastly  stare  once  more  afar, 
Beholds  her  barren   fields  and  blood-blotched 

rocks, 

And  prays  for  favoring  Fortune's  rising  star 
O'er    blooming    meads    and    shepherd's    fleecy 

flocks. 

Alas !    The  very  hand  its  soothing  grace 
Bestows,  brings  crueller  misfortune  than184 
Before ;  and  what  with  blatant  speech  and  mace 
Of  bestial  force,  throughout  her  ashen  span, 
She  lies  the  victim  of  marauding  hosts, 
Whose  vampire  beaks  surround  her  reddened 
"oasts. 


93 


RECONSTRUCTION  AND  REIGN  OF 
TERROR 

II 

Though  ravished,  bleeding  and  deflowered,  she 

thrusts 

Her  arm  to  stay  the  brutal  heel  her  breast 
Would  crush,  and  at  her  throat  the  hand  that 

pressed 

With  throttling  fury;  while  she  feeds  on  crusts 
Of  poverty,  amid  the  ashen  gusts 
That  sweep  her  ruins,  she  vows  to  be  redressed 
Of  wrongs,  and  for  the  curse  of  martial  lusts, 
Atone  with  harvests  crowning  her  green  crest. 

In  vain !    Despair  and  desperation  seize 

Her  soul,  and  now  with  dark  and  bloody  guise, 

Like  murderous  avenging  deities, 

Her  sons,  distraught  by  her  embittered  cries, 

The  hell-hounds  frighten  from  her  bleeding  span, 

With  terrors  of  a  midnight,  mystic  Klan.186 


94 


THE  FRUITS  OF  VICTORY 

THE   South  had   lost!    And  yet  how   dearly 

bought 

The  victory,  a  saner  judgment  might 
Have  won  with  bloodless  battle  for  the  Right, 
Had  turbid  passion,  sordid  interest,  wrought 
Less  selfishly,  and  marplots  had  not  sought 
For  brutish  gain  in  fruits  of  social  blight, 
Or  turned  to  perverse  use,  what  patriots  taught 
An  Age,  but  feebly  crying  for  the  light. 

Black  slavery  was  crushed  by  bloody  wars, 
Yet  left  a  heritage  of  racial  woes 
And  virulence,  evinced  in  crimson  scars 
That  mark  the  rise  of  sorrier  social  throes, 
Within  whose  travail  now  the  Nation  rocks, 
Whilst  Penury  implores  and  Profit  mocks. 


95 


PART  VI 
INDUSTRIAL  EPOCHS 


INVENTORS 
ROBERT  FULTON 

I 

A  YOUTH  whose  mystic  eye  did  oft  traverse 126 
Elysian  fields  of  wonder-worlds,  where  dwell 
The  Lords  of  Light,  that  draw  with  magic  spell 
The  souls  of  them  with  whom  they  would  con- 
verse, 

Beheld,  a-dream,  a  sailless  boat  immerse 
Its  keel,  and  o'er  the  main  its  course  propel, 
With  strange,  mysterious  power  the  waves  dis- 
perse, 
And  swifter  fly  than  swiftest  caravel! 

Since  then  the  genius  of  mankind  defies 
The  storied  woes  and  terrors  of  the  deep, 
Whose  bosom  heaves  with  traffic  of  the  world. 
Scarce  since  old  Hero  stole  the  mysteries 
Of  steam,  that  lay  in  Nature's  breast  asleep, 
Hath  she  her  secret  scroll  so  far  unfurled. 


99 


ROBERT  FULTON 

II 

Though  Stephenson  had  erst  the  land  berailed, 
And  soon  o'er  continents  the  snorting  horse, 
With  rattling  thunder  of  his  vapory  force, 
Had  laggard  Time  so  valiantly  assailed, 
Men,  awed  by  superstition,  wept  and  quailed ; 
Yet  had  not  Fulton  learned  e'en  more  to  nurse 
The  genie  (once  escaped  away  had  sailed), 
Not  half  the  fruitage  ours  from  this  vast  source. 

The  stormy  steeds  that  strode  the  sea  are  reined, 
Their  foamy  flanks  a  genius  now  bestrides; 
Whence  wealth  a  thousand  fold  the  world  hath 

gained, 

And  man  'twixt  continents  serenely  rides, 
While  nations  mingle  from  the  ends  of  earth, 
And  find  in  humankind  a  nobler  worth. 


100 


ELI  WHITNEY 

I 

WHOSO  from  mother  soil  evokes  two  blades 
Of  grass  where  sprang  but  one,  't  is  said,  is  twice 
Beneficent  to  all  mankind;  but  thrice 
And  thousand  times  beneficent  who  grades 
Efficiency  of  toil,  from  lowest  shades 
Of  excellence  to  highest,  and  checks  vice 
Of  sloth,  Incompetence  too  oft  parades, 
That  taxes  Industry  with  pompous  price. 

As  Watt  and  Arkwright  taught  the  spinners  deft 
Their  produce  to  increase  a  thousand  fold, 
By  magic  mechanism,  Whitney  cleft 
The  fruitful  seed  from  heart  of  cotton  boiled,127 
And  thus,  by  dint  of  intellect  divine, 
Transformed  a  people  poor  to  wealth  benign. 


101 


ELI  WHITNEY 

II 

How  oft  Beneficence,  alas !  by  crime 128 
Is  fouled,  when  genius  yields,  exploited  by 
Rapacious  thieves,  who  prowl  'tween  earth  and 

sky, 

To  seize  the  fruits  of  toil  in  every  clime ! 
The  greed  of  Avarice  from  ancient  time 
Hath  trailed  the  tread  of  honest  Industry, 
Hath  robbed  the  toiler,  coined  his  sweaty  grime, 
And  coffered  it  with  wanton  liberty. 

Thus  Genius  innocently  wrongs  mankind, 
While  Buccaneers  of  Trade  by  law  upheld, 
The  piteous  multitude  enslave,  who,  blind, 
With  stolid  face,  behold  their  hopes  dispelled. 
Sometime  the  Law  of  Freedom  shall  reveal 
The  Hand  of  Justice  stretched  to  man's  appeal. 


102 


SAMUEL  F.  B.  MORSE 

WHAT  elfin  of  the  air  to  man  shall  hint 
The  secret  pulses  of  the  ether-sea, 
Which  (thrust  by  arms  of  vulgar  metal  free), 
With  magic,  speed  the  flight  of  thought,  by  dint 
Of  human  touch ;  till  couriers,  as  swiftly  sent 
As  lightning-flash,  spread  broad  the  boundary 
Of  Man's  advance,  and  witness  the  faint  glint 
Of  dawns  besprent  with  vaster  prophecy? 

To  thee  the  Elfin  spake,  O  patient  Morse,129 
And  woke  the  sleeping  magic  of  thy  mind : — 
Thy  lot,  to  seize  the  unreined  steeds,  that  course 
Th'  aerial  void,  for  uses  of  mankind. 
Thou  hast  together  knit  the  ends  of  earth, 
And  with  enlightenment  enswathed  its  girth. 


103 


THOMAS  A.  EDISON 

I 

THOU  circumambient  wizard  of  all  space,1*0 
Who  steal'st  atwixt  interstices  of  air, 
And  filchest  from  the  vibratory  race 
Of  atoms,  the  secret  of  their  rhythmic  grace, 
To  hold  in  waxen  mold  as  prisoner 
The  passing  human  speech,  or  movements,  fair 
Or  foul,  of  human  deeds,  that  well  replace, 
In  truth's  resemblance,  life's  drama  unaware: — 

Or  who  with  wand  of  fine-spun  carbon-thread 
Dost  lure  the  flashing  spark  from  cloud-swept 

realm, 

Its  glow  distributive  around  us  spread, 
Till  now  effulgent  stars  the  earth  o'erwhelm, 
That  rival  heavenly  orbs  and  e'en  the  sun, — 
Sprung  from  thy  brain  whose  art  is  but  begun. 


104 


THOMAS  A.  EDISON 

II 

Thou  unmythed  Mercury  of  modern  days, 
Whose  fleet  foot  fiery  flies  through  throbbing 

rails, 

O'er  which  is  traffic  whirled  by  viewless  flails 
Of  sparkling  force ;  or  spinn'st  in  horseless  shays, 
That  flash  like  phantoms  'thwart  dust-circled 

ways; 

Who  yet  the  air  may  grip  with  vig*rous  sails, 
Shall  pierce  with  certain  poise  the  cloudy  maze, 
Howe'er  the  firmament  with  fear  assails. 

O  may  not  yet  yon  distant  orbs  await 
The  call  thy  flash  shall  signal  to  the  skies, 
When  speech  'twixt  stars  may  be  a  common  sate, 
And  thought  indite  the  air  through  which  it  flies? 
ELECTRA— goddess  of  the  Wizard's  world, 
Men  tremble  as  thy  wonders  are  unfurled. 


105 


INDUSTRIAL  PROGRESS 

THE  NEW  WEST 

(DEVELOPED  SINCE  THE  CIVIL  WAR) 
SWIFT  as  the  sun  leaps  from  dismantled  cloud, 
Whene'er  the  shock  of  storm  is  o'er,  so  leapt 
The  Nation  from  her  war-rent  robe,  all  steeped 
With  crimson  gore,  and,  valiantly,  with  proud 
Assurance,  scoffed  at  what  some  thought  her 

shroud. 

Then  'thwart  the  continent  she  ran  or  crept, — m 
Long   rails    (her   feet),   her   arms    (the   wire- 
thread), — 
Till  she  afar  her  golden  harvest  reaped. 

O  valorous  West,  robustious,  stalwart  West, 

Rejuvenant  with  mankind's  virgin  hope, 

Who  sucked  thy  strength  at  Freedom's  bolst'ring 

breast, 

And  learned  alone  with  iron  Fate  to  cope: 
Awake  the  Nation  to  her  pristine  aims, 
Though  East,  enervate,  cringe  to  gilded  shames ! 

1 06 


THE  AGE  OF  AGRICULTURE 

THOUGH  from  her  infinite  bounty  Nature  gave 
Illimitable  response  to  human  toil, 
Whene'er  assiduous  labor  teased  the  soil, 
And  from  the  hearth  the  gnawing  monster  drave ; 
'T  was  not  till  from  vast  waste  men  learned  to 

save 

(And  still  increase  the  garnered  fruit  of  toil) 
By  binder,  harvester  and  reaper  brave, 
And  giant  plow,  which  cut  without  recoil 

The  virgin  plains  the  march  of  man  await- 
That  wealth  upon  our  shore  to  mountain  mass 
Arose,  exalting  each  enfeebled  State 
Into  an  empire,  did  itself  surpass 
The  Federal  Commonwealth  at  primal  birth, 
Whose  presence  thrills  to-day  the  globe's  wide 
girth. 


107 


THE  AGE  OF  MANUFACTURE 

I 
WHENCE  shall  a  Nation's  towering  prowess 

spring, 

From  Ceres'  lap  or  Vulcan's  blazing  forge  ? 
Who  yields  to  her,  to  him  must  needs  disgorge 
What  substance  mart  or  factory  shall  bring, 
In  fabric  fashion'd  well  for  offering 
Of  human  need ;  thus  only  as  they  merge 
Their  mutual  powers  and  together  cling, 
Will  Progress  mark  the  world's  impelling  urge. 

Industrial  genius  hath  well  learned  this  law 
That  destined  growth;  hence  clang  of  smithy 

welled 

With  hum  of  loom,  converting  earth's  crude,  raw 
Materials,  that  ages  long  had  held 
Emboweled,  to  rarer  values  than  the  world 
E'er  saw  from  flying  wheel  and  furnace  hurled. 


1 08 


THE  AGE  OF  MANUFACTURE 

II 

The  godlike  genius  of  the  human  brain 
Earth's  hidden  secrets  challenged  to  come  forth, 
When  as  by  magic  leap  twixt  South  and  North, 
The  sunken  deities  from  their  domain: 
From  East  to  West  poured  forth  an  endless  rain 
Of  rarest  metals  'larged  to  nobler  worth, 
By  deft  of  human  touch  and  hardship's  strain, 
Where  Vulcan's  sooty  imps  disport  their  birth. 

The  pipes  that  puff  their  grimy  rings  on  high, 
And  rival  Pan  with  strident  melody, 
Hail  not  Parnassus  or  .ZEgean  sky, 
But  sing  the  Age's  praise  of  Industry. 
Where  rings  the  anvil's  song,  the  forge's  hiss, 
Has  Fancy  fled  and  Worship  gone  amiss? 


109 


CAPTAINS  OF  INDUSTRY 

I 

INDUSTRIAL  giants,  whose  keen  scent  was 

guide 

To  fortune  favoring  circumstances  wrought, 
And  glorified  false  Art  of  Trade  (oft  fraught 
With  frantic  conflict,  where  e'en  Suicide 
And  Death  disported  their  grim  fate,  as  Pride, 
Despoiled,  sank  desp'rate  or  fiercely  fought 
For  power,  that  Emp'rors  would  scarce  deride, 
And  won  by  cunning  or  by  blood-spilled  shot) ; 

Who  carved  their  selfish  way  with  ruthless  wit, 
And  swore  allegiance  to  the  God  of  Gain — 
Though  proud  their  prowess  and  enthroned  they 

sit, 

How  oft  their  sullen  souls  hath  Avarice  slain ! 
In  sooth,  the  sordid  price  they  paid  for  wealth 
Long  since  hath  fouled  the  springs  of  moral 

health. 


no 


CAPTAINS  OF  INDUSTRY 

II 

And  yet,  though  vitiate  the  veins  that  throb 
In  traffic's  sordid  frame,  without  the  vast 
Acumen  and  envisioning  scope  to  cast 
Into  organic  shape  that  which  the  mob 
May  fashion,  yet  needs  must  suffer  them  to  rob 
Whose    genius    musters   wealth    (which    once 

amassed 

Constructs  imperial  glories)  ;  how  dull  and  drab, 
Indeed,  the  hues  on  Life's  grim  canvas  cast! 

The  sensitive  antennae  of  their  minds, 
Felt  to  the  far-most  distances  of  space, 
Whate'er,  accumulate,  more  favor  finds, 
With  whate'er  god  prevails  in  Life's  rash  race. 
They  shape,  despite  the  mad  mob's  murmuring 

mood, 
The  path  that  leads  to  human  brotherhood. 


in 


THE  NEW  SOUTH 

(AFTER  1865) 

THOUGH  shorn  thy  beauty  and  thy  heart  dis- 
traught, 
When   shatt'ring   cannon   ceased    to   tear   thy 

breast, 

Had  not  stern  Discipline  thy  soul  caressed, 
Or  thy  redoubted  spirit  Courage  taught, 
To  call,  from  fell  Deucalion  stones,  men  fraught 

v   - 

With  newer  life  and  loftier  hope ;  distressed 
Thy  soured  spirit  had  all  vainly  wrought, 
And  vain  thy  heraldry  of  ancient  crest ! 

But  thou,  oblivious  of  wrongs  and  woes, 
Thine  eyes  o'er  widening  horizons  cast 
(As  bleeding  gladiator  oft  uprose 
Again  to  challenge  Fate  despite  its  blast), 
Like  Ajax,  braved  thy  breast  against  the  sky, 
And  snatched  fair  Fortune  from  false  Destiny. 


112 


PART  VII 
THE  AGE  OF  WORLD  CONQUEST 


SPAIN  AND  COLUMBIA 

I 

CUBA  LIBRE 

THY  wail,  fair  Cuba,  from  your  yucca  plains  m 
(When,  ravish'd  by  demoniac  lust,  thy  form 
Lay  bleeding,  bound  and  trampled  like  a  worm, 
While  brutes  still  riveted  thy  festering  chains), 
Awoke  Columbia  with  dread  refrains; 
Till  passion,  swelling,  burst  in  furious  storm, 
And  hot  o'er  Weyler's  realms  the  fiery  rains 
Hurled  hail  of  bullets  to  save  thy  haggard  form. 

But  wilt  thou,  Daughter  of  Antilles,  be 
Fair  as  the  blossoms  on  thy  succored  breast; 
Or,  thankless  to  the  hand  that  made  thee  free, 
Prefer  to  be  in  Midas'  arms  caressed? 
Beware  the  soil  of  predatory  touch, 
Would  seize  thy  soul  with  mercenary  clutch! 


SPAIN  AND  COLUMBIA 

II 

SPAIN'S  DEFEAT  (1898) 

Low-lying  deep  within  the  dust  and  bowed,133 
Her  hair  disheveled,  smeared  with  clotted  blood, 
Whiles  wringing  wild  her  wrinkled  hands;  with 

eyes 
Transfixed  on  Fate's  last  curse ;  o'erwhelmed  and 

cowed, 

Like  smitten  ox  in  shambles — there  she  lies, 
O'erwreck'd  with  shame;  yet  foolishly  defies 
Fate's  grim  decree  and  wrack  of  war's  red  flood, 
Though  writhing  frantic  in  her  blood-wet  shroud. 

Castilian,  scorned  Death  is  now  thy  peer; 

Thy  jewels  are  of  dust;  thy  sceptre  vain 

As  moistless  clouds  o'er  famine  fields.    A  tear 

Of  manly  sympathy,  O  heatless  Spain, 

Falls  from  Columbia's  eyes  upon  the  sod, 

As  at  thy  grave,  uncovered,  she  bows  to  God. 


116 


SPAIN  AND  COLUMBIA 

III 

FRUITS  OF  SPANISH  CONQUEST 
The  shot  that  Dewey  at  Manila  fired, 
Howbeit  ere  since  our  guns  affright  the  world, 
At  Spanish  ships  for  Freedom  was  not  hurled; 
But  that  aggressive  power  might  be  acquired, 
To  mar  the  dreams  a  glad  world  once  inspired, 
That  Liberty  had  her  far  flag  unfurled, 
For  all  whoe'er  her  overtures  desired, 
Till  earth's  last  despot  from  his  throne  were 
hurled. 

Alas,  when  that  same  flag  was  used  to  bind 
With  prison-withes  brave  Aguinaldo's  frame,134 
Who  fought,  like  Winkleried,  alone  and  blind 
To  fate,  to  burnish  Freedom's  tarnished  name: 
Then  was  our  'scutcheon  fouled  with  hideous 

blot, 
For  Patriots  failed,  defeated  by  our  shot! 


117 


SPAIN  AND  COLUMBIA 

IV 

THE  DIMMED  IDEAL 
No  more  a  beacon  light  upon  the  hills, 
To  warn  encroaching  suttlers  on  our  camp, 
Our  arms  to  death  the  foes  of  Freedom  stamp; 
No  more  thy  name  the  lowliest  workman  thrills, 
Oppressed  by  wrong  in  mart  or  toiling  mills ; 
For  fair  Columbia,  once  the  radiant  lamp 
To  light  the  world,  e'en  Freedom's  heart  now 

stills, 
Nor  heeds  the  slaves  who  toil  in  dark  and  damp. 

Now  proud  with  consciousness  of  mighty  power, 
Thy  hellish  Sea-dogs  plunging  o'er  the  waves, 
Whose    fiery    tongues    and    flaming    eye-balls 

glower 

On  all  who  dare  oppose  what  Avarice  craves; 
Beware,  if  thou  thy  glorious  mission  cease, 
Avenging  Fate  may  crush  thy  prosp'rous  peace. 


118 


VERDICT   AND    OUTLOOK   OF   OUR 
HISTORY 

I 

A  HUNDRED  years  and  more,  America, 
Thy  pledge  prevailed  a  challenge  to  the  world ; — 
Thy  radiant  flag,  for  Human  Rights  unfurled, 
Assured  protection  and  fair  honor's  play 
To  humblest  citizen  where'er  he  stray ; 
Nor  e'er  hath  envious  rival  at  thee  hurled 
Invidious  taunt,  but  thou  with  conqueror's  sway 
Hast  nobly  passed  and  insult's  banner  furl'd. 

Once  Freedom's  cynosure  'mid  nations  wide, 
Whose  fame  inspired  the  sweat-soiled  sons  of 

earth : 

Tell  me,  hast  thou  serenely  swept  the  tide, 
And  topped  the  waves  toward  yon  same  star,  thy 

birth 

Proclaimed  would  guide  mankind  to  liberty: — 
Or  hast  thou  lost  th*  path  where  sail  the  free? 


119 


VERDICT    AND    OUTLOOK    OF    OUR 
HISTORY 

II 

O  fond  and  fair  Columbia,  how  love 
We  all  thy  hallowed  hills  and  echoing  streams, 
And  pray  that  thou'lt  fulfil  thy  noblest  dreams! 
But  yet  we  fear,  the  hand  within  thy  glove 
Is  not  to-day  as  't  was  when  heroes  strove 
To  scatter  night  with  Freedom's  morning  beams, 
And  spilt  their  blood  that  Justice  from  above 
Might  fall  on  lowliest  thy  succor  claims. 

The  insidious  coils  of  infamy  thy  frame 
Encircle — hate  of  class;  the  power  of  wealth; 
Enslavement  of  the  poor;  the  sordid  game 
In  every  age  hath  staked  a  nation's  health 
For  gain  of  pampered  few, — these  are  the  signs, 
O  Land  we  love,  that  threaten  thy  confines. 


120 


VERDICT   AND    OUTLOOK   OF   OUR 
HISTORY 

III 

Since  Egypt's  slaves  rebelled,  and  Roman  arms 
Enervate  lapsed  emasculate  with  greed; 
Since  Alva  robbed  the  thrifty  Dutch,  who  freed 
Themselves  with  stubborn  grit;  since  Swabian 

farms 
Ran    red    with    peasants'    blood,    and    Russian 

swarms 

From  massacres  fled  bleeding ;  since  British  steed 
Was  lashed  to  start  Colonial  alarms; — 
Self-same  has  been  the  despot's  gruesome  meed. 

Nor  shall  thy  brow,  Columbia,  unstained, 
With  glory  be  regaled  in  coming  days, 
Lest  from  thy  breast  thou  thrust  and  hold  dis- 
dained, 

The  false  embrace  and  perverse,  winning  ways 
Of  predatory  princes  who,  distraught, 
Conceive    their    cunning    hath    thy    prowess 
wrought. 

121 


VERDICT   AND    OUTLOOK   OF   OUR 
HISTORY 

IV 

No  nation  thrives  where   Traffic's  slaves  are 

doomed, 

Be  they  of  Slav  or  Hun  or  Afric  blood, 
Or  made  by  Conqu'rors  sword  or  Judge's  hood, 
E'en  in  a  land  where  Freedom  was  enwombed : — 
The  cheated  toiler,  scorn'd  by  scion  plumed 
With  power  absurd ;  the  vagrant  void  of  food ; 
The  court's  disdain;  free  press  and  speech  en- 
tombed ; 
Wan  children  flung  (to  feed  the  Age's  mood), 

'Neath  Jaganath-enginery  of  grasping  wealth ; — 
These  are  the  signs  insidious  decay 
Disports,  with  mawkish  boast  of  stalwart  health ! 
Beware,  Columbia!    Since  ancient  day, 
The  blood  of  victims  seeks  its  just  revenge, 
When  for  subsistence  men  must  beg  and  cringe. 


122 


AMERICA  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  WORLD 

NOT  yet  thy  Star,  O  promised  Hope  of  Earth, 
Hath  set  behind  the  gath'ring  clouds  of  shame, 
Nor  irremedial  blight  befouled  thy  name, 
Despite    Want's    wail    and   Penury's   wid'ning 

girth, 

Or  Plutocrat's  disdain  of  lowly  birth ; 
Though  clouds  beset  thy  brow,  thy  heart's  the 

same, 

As  with  its  pristine  joy  at  Freedom's  birth, 
Exultantly  it  praised  her  dawning  fame. 

Up !  up !  America,  and  crush  the  snake 

That  thrusts  its  .deathful  fangs  at  thy  brave 

breast!135 

With  one  fell  blow  thou  canst  its  foul  coils  break, 
And  free  thy  frame  from  its  envenomed  crest. 
Thou  wilt  not  fail,  Defender  of  the  Right; 
Thy  shield  is  Truth  and  Justice  is  thy  might ! 


123 


PART  VIII 
HISTORICAL  NOTES 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

1.  As  to  the  Discovery  of  North  America  by 
the  Norsemen.  About  the  year  860  Noddodr,  an 
illustrious  rover,  driven  by  a  storm  discovered 
Iceland  and  named  it  Snowland.  Not  many 
years  after  Earl  Ingolf  of  Norway  sought  Ice- 
land as  a  refuge  from  tyranny,  and  planted  a 
colony  there.  Greenland  was  discovered  by  ac- 
cident. One  of  the  early  settlers  of  Iceland  was 
driven  westward  on  the  sea  by  a  storm  and  dis- 
covered Greenland.  To  that  retreat  Eric  the 
Red  was  compelled  to  fly  from  Iceland,  and  find- 
ing it  more  fertile  than  the  latter,  named  it 
Greenland,  made  it  his  place  of  abode  and  at- 
tracted other  Northmen  thither.  Among  Eric's 
followers  was  a  Norwegian,  named  Biarnje  who 
traded  between  Norway  and  Iceland,  and  as  his 
father  had  gone  with  Eric  he  proposed  to  his 
crew  that  they  follow  his  parent.  Biarnje  did 
not  wait  to  unload  the  cargo,  but  put  straight 
to  sea,  on  what  he  termed  a  foolish  voyage,  as  he 
had  never  seen  Greenland.  He  wandered  many 
nights  and  days,  seeing  strange  lands,  which  he 
refused  to  explore  because  they  did  not  have  the 
ice-hills  of  Greenland,  which  he  had  often  heard 
his  father  describe;  but  at  last  they  landed  on 

127 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

what  is  now  believed  to  have  been  the  American 
continent.  The  rumor  of  this  fact  reaching  the 
sons  of  Eric  in  Iceland,  one  of  them,  Leif,  set 
out  to  find  the  same  country,  and  finally  reached, 
as  is  believed  by  historians,  the  coast  of  Cape 
Cod,  as  well  as  the  island  of  Nantucket.  In 
Scribner's  "History  of  the  United  States"  we 
find  a  pleasing  description  of  this  exploration. 

"Leif  divided  his  company  into  two  parties, 
which  were  alternately  to  explore  the  country. 
On  one  of  these  expeditions  a  man  named  Tyrker, 
a  German  who  was  Leif's  foster  father,  was  miss- 
ing. A  party  had  just  started  in  search  of  him, 
with  Leif  at  its  head,  when  the  German  reap- 
peared in  a  state  of  great  excitement.  He  ges- 
ticulated wildly,  spoke  for  a  long  time  in  his 
native  tongue,  and  Leif  saw  'that  his  foster-father 
was  not  in  his  right  senses.'  But  Leif  was  mis- 
taken ;  the  poor  German,  who  had  lived  long  in 
the  ice  fields  of  the  frozen  North,  had  only  been 
carried  back  for  the  moment  to  the  Vaterland, 
for  he  said  at  length  in  Norsk,  'I  have  not  been 
much  farther  off,  but  still  I  have  something  new 
to  tell ;  I  found  vines  and  grapes !'  'But  is  that 
true,  my  foster-father?'  quoth  Leif.  'Surely  it 
is  true,'  replied  he,  'for  I  was  bred  up  in  a  land 
where  there  is  no  want  of  either  grapes  or  vines.' 

"Then,  no  doubt,  he  led  them  to  the  woods,  that 
they  might  see  with  their  own  eyes  the  climb- 
ing vines  and  clustering  fruit.  ...  So 
128 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

precious  were  they  to  Leif  that  thenceforth  one 
duty  of  his  men  was  to  gather  grapes,  and  he  filled 
his  log  boat  with  them  to  take  back  te  Green- 
land. What  better  evidence  of  the  value  of  the 
land  could  he  bring  to  the  people  whose  greatest 
delight  next  to  fighting  was  drinking?  .  .  . 
So  heaping  up  on  deck  the  grapes  of  this  beau- 
tiful land,  where  in  winter  was  no  frost,  and 
which  he  named  Vinland  (Vineland),  and  filling 
the  hold  of  his  vessel  with  timber,  about  which 
at  least  there  could  be  no  questionable  value  in 
treeless  Greenland,  Leif  returned  home  in  the 
Spring." 

Another  son  of  Eric  the  Red,  Thorvald,  ex- 
plored the  region  about  Cape  Cod  and  Plymouth 
Bay,  Massachusetts,  where  a  colony  was  estab- 
lished which  for  years  conducted  posts  of  trade 
throughout  that  vicinage. 

For  an  elaborate  account  of  the  further  ex- 
peditions of  the  Northmen  in  America  see  Scrib- 
EQr's  "History,"  which  gives  the  following  ex- 
planation of  the  sources  of  information,  so  long 
concealed  from  the  world,  on  which  we  now  de- 
pend for  the  historical  proof  of  the  Norse  ex- 
plorations. 

"The  fullest  and  most  important  of  these  rela- 
tions exist  in  manuscript,  in  a  collection  known 
as  the  'Codex  Flatoiensis,'  written  between  the 
years  1387  and  1395.  These  now  preserved  in 
the  Royal  Library  at  Copenhagen,  were  found 

129 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

in  a  monastery  on  the  Island  of  Flato — on  the 
west  coast  of  Ireland — where  they  had  lain  for- 
gotten and  unnoticed  for  centuries.  There  is  no 
serious  question  now  of  the  authenticity  of  these 
sagas.  .  .  .  The  main  facts  related  in  them 
are  unquestionably  true;  the  incongruities,  dis- 
crepancies and  even  absurdities  which  can  be 
pointed  out  are  such  as  would  inevitably  occur 
in  verbal  repetitions  for  nearly  three  centuries 
of  the  circumstantial  details  of  distant  voyages 
and  adventures ;  and  such  errors,  moreover,  are 
incontestable  evidence  that  the  narratives  were 
not  constructed  for  a  purpose  long  after  the  date 
of  the  pretended  event,  but  are  veritable  relations 
of  actual  occurrences  told  by  those  who  took  part 
in  them,  and  unconsciously  changed  by  those  who 
repeated  them  from  time  to  time  on  points  which 
seemed  to  them  of  little  importance  or  interest. 
Not  less  conclusive  is  the  simplicity,  sometimes 
childishness,  of  the  narratives,  the  preservation 
of  unimportant  particulars,  remarkable  only  for 
their  singularity,  so  characteristic  of  all  unculti- 
vated people,  who,  like  children,  delight  in  mar- 
vels and  are  captured  by  novelty"  (p.  63). 

2.  "Saga  meant  simply  any  kind  of  literature  in 
narrative  form ;  the  good  people  of  Iceland  did 
not  happen  to  have  such  a  handy  word  as  'his- 
tory.' .  .  .  The  narrative  on  which  our  ac- 
count of  the  Vinland  voyages  is  chiefly  based  be- 
130 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

longs  to  this  class  of  historical  sagas.  It  is  the 
Saga  of  Red  Eric.  .  .  .  The  northern  ver- 
sion is  that  made  by  priest  Jon  Thordharson. 
Jon's  version  thus  made  has  generally 
been  printed  under  the  title  of  'saga  of  Red 
Eric.'  '  (John  Fiske's  "Discovery  of  America.") 
"The  territorial  limits  of  the  [Spanish]  mon- 
archy went  on  expanding  beyond  example:  Cas- 
tile and  Leon  brought  under  the  same  sceptre 
with  Aragon  and  its  foreign  dependencies,  Sicily 
and  Sardinia,  with  the  kingdoms  of  Granada, 
Navarre  and  Naples,  with  the  Canaries,  Oran 
and  the  other  settlements  in  Africa,  and  with  the 
islands  and  vast  continent  of  America.  To  these 
broad  domains  the  comprehensive  schemes  of  the 
sovereigns  would  have  added  Portugal;  and  their 
arrangements  for  this,  although  defeated  for  the 
present,  opened  the  way  to  its  eventual  completion 
under  Philip  II.  (Prescott's  "Ferdinand  and 
Isabella." 

3.  As  to  the  antiquity  of  man  in  America. 
There  are  several  geological  discoveries  that  point 
to  great  antiquity  on  this  continent.  Among  the 
most  important  and  convincing  may  first  be  men- 
tioned the  discovery  about  seventy-five  years  ago 
of  a  human  pelvis  in  association  with  bones  of 
the  mastodon,  the  megalonyx,  and  other  extinct 
animals  near  Natches,  Mississippi.  Sir  Qiarles 
Lyell  in  184«6  made  a  very  careful  study  of  the  lo- 


cality  of  this  discovery  during  his  visit  to  the 
American  continent,  and  being  much  biased 
against  the  theory  of  man's  immense  antiquity, 
he  conceived  a  theory  of  the  pelvis  having  been 
washed  down  a  mountain  side  and  buried  with  the 
animal  bones.  But  he  afterwards  admitted  that 
"had  the  pelvic  bone  belonged  to  any  other  mam- 
mifer  than  man,  such  a  theory  would  never  have 
been  resorted  to." 

In  New  Orleans  in  1852  while  excavating  for 
gas  works,  there  was  found  a  human  skeleton  at 
a  depth  of  sixteen  feet,  buried  under  four  suc- 
cessive subsoils  of  cypress  forests.  It  is  con- 
tended by  some  geologists  that  the  skeleton  must 
have  been  there  for  at  least  50,000  years. 

Dr.  Koch  of  St.  Louis  made  some  sensational 
discoveries  in  1839.  He  seemed  to  have  found 
sufficient  evidence  of  the  attack  upon  a  mammoth 
or  mastodon  by  human  hunters,  so  that  it  is  be- 
lieved the  actual  scene  he  fell  upon  was  the  dra- 
matic situation  of  one  of  those  tremendous  ani- 
mals, now  extinct,  having  gotten  caught  in  a 
swamp,  in  which  perhaps  one-half  of  his  im- 
mense bulk  was  sunk  so  that  he  could  not  make 
his  escape.  He  was  discovered  by  a  horde  of 
hunters  who  fell  upon  him  and  buried  him  under 
a  rain  of  arrows  that  finally  effected  his  death. 
This  picturesque  event  must  have  taken  place, 
it  is  computed,  over  a  hundred  thousand  years 
ago. 

132 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

In  1857  the  fragment  of  a  human  skull  was 
taken  from  the  gold  drift  of  California  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  feet  below  the  surface  of  the 
Table  Mountain,  together  with  the  fossil  bones 
of  extinct  animals.  Again  in  1868  or  1869  in 
Calaveras  county  in  a  shaft  one  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  deep,  through  five  beds  of  lava  and  vol- 
canic tufa  and  four  beds  of  gold  bearing  quartz, 
a  human  cranium  was  found.  The  men  whom 
this  skull  represented  lived  before  the  race  of 
man  appeared  on  the  European  continent,  it  is 
believed,  and  before  the  peaks  of  the  Sierra  Ne- 
vada Mountains  of  California  appeared  above  the 
waters  of  the  ocean. 

"Though  the  number  of  alleged  facts  bearing 
upon  the  antiquity  of  the  human  family  on  this 
continent  are  still  few  and  need  unquestioned  con- 
firmation, the  inclination  of  scientific  belief  is  that 
the  evidence  exists  and  will  still  be  found. 
However  strong  may  be  the  probability  of  the 
Asiatic  origin  of  the  North  American  Indian,  be- 
hind him  appears  another  race  which  must  have 
been  displaced  by  the  Mongolian  migration." 

The  evidence  of  this  still  more  ancient  and 
even  semi-civilized  people  is  found  in  the  curious 
and  suggestive  mound-homes  and  fortresses  found 
throughout  the  northern  part  of  the  North 
American  continent. 

"Mound  builders  is  the  name  given  to  an  un- 
known people  who  inhabited  the  central  portion 

133 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

of  North  America  at  an  unknown  period  in  its 
history.  They  have  left  traces  of  skill  in  agri- 
culture and  in  the  arts,  and  evidences  of  having 
attained  to  a  considerable  degree  of  civilization. 
All  over  the  continent  between  the  great  range  of 
hills  extending  from  the  northern  part  of  Ver- 
mont to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, traces  of  this  mysterous  people  are  found 
in  the  remains  of  earthy  risings,  implying  mili- 
tary works,  places  of  sepulture,  altars  of  sacri- 
fice, and  even  assuming  the  shape  of  animals,  such 
as  buffalo,  eagle,  turtle,  serpent,  lizard,  alligator, 
etc.  It  is  estimated  that  more  than  ten  thousand 
mounds  and  more  than  two  thousand  earth  en- 
closures are  in  the  state  of  Ohio  alone." 

"These  witnesses  to  the  occupation  of  the  land 
by  a  numerous  and  busy  population  long  ago  can 
only  be  considered  as  the  ruins  which  mark  the 
site  of  that  ancient  habitation.  The  solid  earth 
has  withstood  the  inroads  of  time;  whatever  was 
perishable  and  once  bore  the  impress  of  such 
degree  of  culture  as  the  people '  may  have  ac- 
quired, has  perished.  In  the  mounds,  however, 
we  gain  some  further  insight  into  their  char- 
acter, though  they  are  themselves  as  remarkable 
and  almost  as  inexplicable  as  the  extensive  sys- 
tems of  circumvallations,  embankments  and  ex- 
cavations, of  which  they  make  a  part.  These 
mounds  are  of  all  dimensions,  from  that  of  the 
Cahokia,  Illinois,  one  of  the  group  of  sixty  which 
134 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

covered  six  acres  of  ground,  and  that  of  Seltzer- 
town,  Mississippi,  of  about  equal  extent,  and 
others  of  like  imposing  dimensions,  to  those  of 
the  region  extending  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to 
the  Valley  of  the  Arkansas  and  westward  into 
Texas,  which  are  described  as  'from  one  foot  to 
five  feet  high,  with  a  diameter  from  thirty  feet 
to  one  hundred  and  forty  feet,'  and  as  'num- 
bered by  millions'  and  innumerable  smaller 
mounds  found  in  Missouri.  If  these  are  the 
foundations  of  human  dwellings,  the  country 
must  have  been  one  vast  town;  and  if  it  is  dif- 
ficult to  believe  this,  it  is  no  less  difficult  to  con- 
ceive of  their  being  raised  in  such  immense  num- 
bers and  in  such  close  proximity,  for  any  other 
purpose."  (Scribner's  "History  of  the  United 
States,"  pp.  25,  26.) 

4.  "First  born  among  the  continents.  Though 
so  iruch  later  in  culture  and  civilization  than  some 
of  more  recent  birth,  America,  so  far  as  her 
physical  history  is  concerned,  has  been  fairly  de- 
nominated the  NEW  WORLD.  Hers  was  the 
first  dry  land  lifted  out  of  the  waters,  hers  the 
first  shore  washed  by  the  ocean  that  enveloped 
all  the  earth  beside ;  and  while  Europe  was  repre- 
sented by  islands  rising  here  and  there  above  the 
sea,  America  already  stretched  an  unbroken  line 
of  land  from  Nova  Scotia  to  the  Far  West." 
("Geological  Sketches"  by  L.  Agassiz,  p.  1.) 

135 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

5.  The  vast  growth  and  increase  of  Spanish  dis- 
covery and  conquest  are  indicated  in  the  follow- 
ing quotations  from  Cressy's  "Decisive  Battles  of 
the  World." 

"Philip  II  was  absolute  master  of  an  empire 
so  superior  to  the  other  states  of  the  world  in 
extent,  in  resources,  and  especially  in  military 
and  naval  forces,  as  to  make  the  project  of  en- 
larging that  empire  into  a  universal  monarchy 
seem  a  perfectly  feasible  scheme.  .  .  .  Since 
the  downfall  of  the  Roman  empire  no  such  pre- 
ponderant power  had  existed  in  the  world. 
.  .  .  Besides  the  Spanish  crown  Philip  had 
succeeded  to  the  kingdom  of  Naples  and  Sicily, 
the  duchy  of  Milan,  Franche-Comte  and  the 
Netherlands.  In  Africa  he  possessed  Tunis, 
Oran,  the  Cape  Verde  and  the  Canary  Islands ; 
and  in  Asia  the  Philippine  and  Sunda  Islands  and 
part  of  the  Moluccas.  Beyond  the  Atlantic  he 
was  lord  of  the  most  splendid  portions  of  the 
New  World.  .  .  .  The  empires  of  Peru  and 
Mexico,  New  Spain  and  Chile,  .  .  .  His- 
paniola  and  Cuba,  and  many  other  of  the  Ameri- 
can islands  were  provinces  of  the  sovereign  of 
Spain." 

6.  A  wise  and  vigorous,  though  a  severe  admin- 
istration characterised  the  beginning  of  the  reign 
of   Ferdinand    and    Isabelle.     .     .     .     But   amid 
these  laudable  cares  the  abominable  tribunal  of 

136 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

the  Inquisition  was  furnished  with  such  an  extent 
of  powers,  that,  under  the  pretense  of  extirpat- 
ing heresy  and  impiety,  the  whole  kingdom  be- 
came a  scene  of  blood  and  horror.  The  fortunes 
of  the  lives  of  individuals  were  entirely  at  the 
mercy  of  the  grand  inquisitor  and  his  subordi- 
nates. It  was  never  allowed  to  a  criminal  to  be 
confronted  with  his  accuser,  nor  even  to  be  in- 
formed of  his  crime ;  the  sole  method  of  trial  was 
by  exposing  the  unhappy  wretch  to  the  most 
extreme  torture,  which  either  ended  his  life  in 
agony,  or  forced  a  confession  of  his  guilt,  which 
was  expiated  by  committing  him  to  the  flames.'* 
(Tytler's  "Universal  History.") 

"The  data  for  an  actual  computation  of  the 
number  of  victims  sacrificed  to  the  Inquisition  are 
not  very  satisfactory.  From  such  as  exists,  how- 
ever, Lorente  has  been  led  to  the  most  frightful 
results.  He  computes  that  during  the  eighteen 
years  of  Torquemada's  ministry,  there  were  no 
less  than  10,220  burnt,  6860  condemned  and 
burnt  in  effigy  as  absent  or  dead,  and  97,321 
reconciled  by  various  other  penances  ;  affording  an 
average  of  more  than  six  thousand  convicted  per- 
sons annually.  In  this  enormous  sum  of  human 
misery  is  not  included  the  multitude  of  orphans, 
who  from  the  confiscation  of  their  paternal  in- 
heritance were  turned  over  to  indigence  and  vice." 
(Prescott's  "Ferdinand  and  Isabella.") 

"The  conduct  of  the  Spaniards  towards  the 

137 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

inhabitants  of  the  newly  discovered  countries  and 
the  cruelties  exercised  by  them  under  the  first 
governors,  furnish  a  subject  which,  it  were  to  be 
wished  for  the  honor  of  humanity,  could  be  for- 
ever veiled  in  oblivion.  Religion  and  policy  were 
the  pretext  for  the  most  outrageous  inhumanity. 
The  favorite  instruments  employed  in 
these  pious  purposes  were  the  rack  and  the 
scourge.  While  some  to  escape  their  misery  put 
an  end  to  their  own  lives,  others,  flying  from  their 
inhuman  persecutors  into  the  woods,  were  hunted 
down  like  dogs  and  torn  to  pieces  like  wild  beasts. 
In  a  little  time  Hispaniola,  which  consisted  of 
three  millions  of  inhabitants,  and  Cuba,  that  had 
above  six  hundred  thousand,  were  absolutely  de- 
populated. Bartholomeo  de  las  Casas,  who  was 
witness  himself  to  these  barbarities,  an  unsuccess- 
ful advocate  in  the  cause  of  humanity,  had  drawn 
these  enormities  in  such  colors  as  to  form  a  pic- 
ture of  horror  almost  exceeding  credibility." 
(Tytler's  "Universal  History.") 

7.  Columbus  was  not  reared  to  the  life  of  a  sol- 
dier. His  father  was  a  humble  carder  of  wool. 
But  some  of  Columbus'  kindred  were  given  to 
seafaring,  and  from  the  age  of  fourteen  his  home 
was  that  of  a  boat.  Those  with  whom  he  spent 
his  youthful  years  followed  a  life  not  much  dif- 
fering from  that  of  pirates. 

"It  was  with  such  sea  rovers  that  the  great 
138 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

captain  learned  the  practice  of  navigation, 
learned  how  to  carry  himself  in  fight  with  sword 
in  hand  when  he  sprang  over  the  bulwarks  of  a 
hostile  vessel,  learned  how  to  control  the  rough 
and  lawless  men  with  whom  he  sailed ;  now  by  the 
enforcement  of  an  iron  discipline,  now  by  those 
arts  of  persuasion  of  which,  with  his  winning 
speech  and  commanding  presence,  he  was  master." 
After  a  tragic  incident  at  sea  he  arrived  at 
Lisbon  before  he  was  thirty  years  of  age,  where 
he  married,  abandoned  his  roving  life,  and  set 
himself  to  the  task  of  manufacturing  charts  and 
maps.  It  was  while  engaged  upon  these  studies 
that  he  became  convinced  of  the  possibility  of  a 
transit  over  western  waters  to  Asia  and  the 
Orient. 

8.  Once  persuaded  that  his  theory  of  a  western 
passage  was  right,  "with  patience  that  nothing 
cor  Id  wear  out,  and  a  perseverance  that  was  ab- 
solutely unconquerable,  Columbus  waited  and  la- 
bored for  eighteen  years,  appealing  to  eyes  that 
wanted  light  and  to  ears  that  wanted  hearing." 
He  left  Lisbon  in  14«83  and  tried  first  at  the 
Court  of  Genoa,  his  native  city,  where  he  failed. 
He  tried  the  Court  of  Spain,  but  after  much  dis- 
appointment by  evasive  answers  and  unendura- 
ble delay,  he  went  to  England  and  France.  But 
by  good  fortune  Luis  de  Santagel,  receiver  of  the 
ecclesiastical  revenues  of  Aragon,  having  heard 

139 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

that  Columbus  had  actually  arranged  to  leave 
his  country  to  apply  at  foreign  courts,  he  with 
Alonzo  de  Quintanilla,  the  Minister  of  Finance, 
prevailed  upon  Isabella  to  heed  his  claims. 

"They  convinced  her  that  the  loss  and  shame 
to  Spain  would  be  great  and  irreparable  if  such 
an  opportunity  to  add  to  her  dominion  of  wealth 
by  the  discovery  of  a  short  passage  to  India 
should  fall  into  the  hands  of  any  other  power. 
A  messenger  was  immediately  despatched  to 
bring  Columbus  back,  the  queen  declaring  that 
the  enterprise  should  now  be  her  own,  and  that 
she  would  pawn  the  royal  jewels  to  defray  its 
expenses.  The  generous  sacrifice,  however,  on 
her  part,  was  rendered  unnecessary  by  Santagel 
who  took  it  upon  himself  to  advance  the  requisite 
sum." 

9.  The  great  passion  of  that  age  was  to  come  in 
closer  touch  with  India  and  the  Orient,  that  its 
vast  wealth,  its  immeasurable  quantities  of  gold, 
might  be  tapped  for  the  benefit  of  the  then  known 
Occident.  Marco  Polo,  the  great  adventurer, 
had  brought  back  from  the  East  rapturously 
fascinating  legends  concerning  its  wonders  of 
wealth  and  commercial  prosperity.  To  reach 
that  country  in  the  shortest  way  was  the  supreme 
commercial  ambition  of  that  epoch. 

"India — always  India.  It  was  well  to  win 
souls  to  God;  it  was  well  to  dispel  the  clouds  of 
140 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

ignorance,  whether  Christian  or  heathen;  it  was 
well  to  augment  the  glory  of  states  and  dynasties, 
and  add  to  the  sum  of  happiness,  by  the  discov- 
ery of  strange  countries.  But  commerce  with 
the  gorgeous  East,  so  teeming  with  all  precious 
things,  would  enrich  kingdoms  and  make  states 
and  princes  powerful.  .  .  .  Great  would  be 
not  the  glory  only,  but  the  profit  also,  of 
that  man  or  that  people  who  would  shorten 
that  way  in  distance,  remove  its  difficulties  and 
perils,  and  pour  the  precious  commodities  of 
Asia  in  unstinted  abundance  into  the  lap  of 
Europe." 

Columbus,  like  all  the  navigators  of  his  age, 
was  inspired  by  the  same  overpowering  ambition 
to  find  this  passage  to  the  East,  but  he  thought 
out  a  fresh  way,  had  an  original  theory  of  his 
own. 

"From  his  geographical  and  astronomical 
studies  he  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
earth  was  in  shape  a  sphere,  but  that  it  was 
much  smaller  than  it  had  been  generally  supposed 
to  be.  Two-thirds  of  it  at  least,  he  was  sure, 
was  occupied  by  Europe  and  Asia,  and  the  east- 
ern coast  of  Asia  must,  in  that  case,  come  within 
the  other  third  of  the  whole  circumference  and 
stretch  toward  the  western  coast  of  Europe." 
He  was  despised  by  his  rivals  as  an  enthusiast, 
a  heretic,  a  dreamer,  and  came  near  being  con- 
demned by  ecclesiastical  courts  for  his  pains. 

141 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

10.  "The  reaction  in  feeling  and  opinion  made  it 
possible  to    send  him  home  in  chains    from  the 
third    expedition.     The   popular    indifference    to 
the  injustice  and  cruelty  which  pursued  him  to 
the  end  of  his  days,  and  the  bitter  hostility  of 
his  many  enemies,  are  explicable  only  by  the  dis- 
appointment of  those  magnificent  hopes   excited 
by  his  first  discovery,  and  which  he  still  held  out 
in  spite  of  the  stern  facts  which  had  opened  the 
eyes  of  everyone  else.     Small  deference  was  paid 
to  the  authority  of  one  who  was  looked  upon,  at 
best,  as  a  half-crazed  enthusiast,  and  the  haughty 
Spaniards  resented  it  as  an  insult  that  any  power 
should  still  rest  in  the  hands,  or  any  confidence 
be  placed  in  the  words,  of  one  whom  they  thought 
rather  deserving  of  punishment  as  an  impostor 
than     of     reward     as     a     benefactor.     He     had 
promised  dominion,  power,   riches,  a  short  pas- 
sage  to   Cathay,   the   conquest  of  the  East; — a 
savage  island  or  two  in  the  Western  sea  was  as 
yet  the  only  fulfilment  of  that  promise.     What 
else  it  was  to  be  he  never  knew.     Not  till  he  was 
dead  did  the  world  begin  to  understand  that  he 
had  found  the  New  World." 

11.  "The  glory  of  the  discovery  that  Columbus 
actually  made  has   to   a   remarkable  degree  ob- 
scured the  fact  that  in  the  long  discussion  before 
kings  and  councils  of  the  discovery  he  proposed 
to  make,  it  was  Columbus  who  was  in  the  wrong 

142 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

and  his  opponents  who  were  in  the  right  on  the 
main  question — a  short  western  route  to  India. 
The  ignorance,  the  obstinacy,  the  stupidity  with 
which  he  so  long  contended  were  indeed  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  an  event  so  important  to  all  civi- 
lized races  as  possession  of  half  the  globe;  but 
that  event  was  no  more  proposed  or  foreseen  by 
Columbus  than  it  was  opposed  by  those  who  with- 
stood him  the  most  persistently  or  ridiculed  him 
the  most  unmercifully.  .  .  .  Ten  years  of 
observation  and  reflection  on  the  character  of 
his  discoveries  moved  him  not  in  the  least  to  any 
correction  of  this  singular  credulity.  Even  on 
his  fourth  and  last  voyage  he  wrote  to  the  king 
and  queen  on  the  coast  of  Veragua  that  he  had 
reached  Mangi,  'contiguous  to  Cathay'  3  nine- 
teen days  of  travel  by  land,  he  was  confident, 
would  take  him  to  the  river  Ganges.  The  mines 
of  Aurea,  whence,  according  to  Josephus,  he  re- 
minas  them,  came  the  vast  wealth  of  David  and 
Solomon  spoken  of  in  Chronicles  and  the  Book 
of  Kings,  were,  he  was  now  sure,  identical  with 
the  mines  of  Veragua,"  etc.,  etc. 

12.  "Though  Columbus  himself  never  knew,  or 
never  acknowledged  that  he  had  made  a  mistake ; 
though  never  by  a  single  word,  so  far  as  there 
is  any  record,  did  he  anticipate  the  true  cause 
of  his  undying  fame,  others  saw  when  he  returned 
from  his  voyage  only  the  dispelling  of  a  gorgeous 

143 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

vision.  The  hidalgos  who  had  thronged  about 
him  for  that  expedition,  clamoring  to  be  led  to 
the  possession  of  the  East,  found,  not  an  empire 
filled  with  magnificent  cities,  their  ports  crowded 
with  ships  by  thousands  busy  with  the  commerce 
of  a  third  of  the  world ;  not  temples  roofed  with 
gold,  resting  on  golden  pillars  cunningly  wrought 
and  colored;  not  a  people  clothed  in  silks  and 
costly  furs  decked  with  precious  stones,  leading 
lives  of  magnificent  luxury  and  ease  in  cities  of 
palaces  such  as  Europe  never  knew;  but  only  an 
unreclaimed  wilderness  peopled  by  naked  savages, 
where  he  who  would  not  work  must  starve  and 
where  what  gold  they  heard  of  was  to  be  dug 
with  weary  toil  out  of  the  bowels  of  the  earth. 

Such  of  these  disappointed  men  as  lived 
to  return  filled  the  kingdom  with  their  clamors. 

If  the  sons  of  Columbus,  who  were  pages 
of  the  king,  passed  that  way,  they  would  ex- 
claim :  'Look  at  the  sons  of  Musquitoland,  of  that 
man  who  had  discovered  the  lands  of  deceit  and 
disappointment,  a  place  of  sepulchre  and  wretch- 
edness to  Spanish  hidalgos.'  "  (Scribner's  "His- 
tory of  the  United  States.") 

13.  "When  the  path  of  the  new  Indies  was  fairly 
opened,  in  the  last  decade  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
fresh  voyages  followed  in  rapid  succession,  and 
not  navigators  only,  but  sovereigns,  vied  with 
each  other  to  share  with  Spain  the  glory  and 
144 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

riches  of  the  new  discoveries.  Henry  VII  of 
England,  when  he  gave  a  patent  to  the  Cabots, 
no  doubt  reflected  that  Columbus  might  have 
been  an  English,  rather  than  a  Spanish  admiral. 
The  king  of  Portugal  did  not  attempt  to  con- 
ceal his  chagrin  that  the  dominion  and  power 
which  had  fallen,  or  inevitably  would  fall,  into 
the  hands  of  Spain,  he  had  rejected.  But  though 
Spain  could  not  be  interfered  with  in  the  South, 
it  was  still  possible  to  find  a  still  undiscovered 
way  to  India  by  northern  passage;  there  might 
still  be  unknown  islands,  or  even  continents,  full 
of  gold  and  heathen  men,  in  northern  seas. 
To  the  genius  of  Columbus  this  homage 
was  paid  by  all  his  contemporaries — whither  he 
led,  there  they  followed.  As  Ojedda  and  Ves- 
pucci, after  his  discovery  of  the  Southern  Con- 
tinent on  his  third  voyage,  went  to  Paria  and 
explored  the  coast  north  and  south  of  that  gulf, 
so  Solis  and  Pinzon,  moved  by  his  example,  sailed 
into  the  Caribbean  sea  and  along  its  shore  where 
Columbus  on  his  fourth  voyage  had  led  the  way. 
Within  four  or  five  years  of  his  death,  in  1506, 
the  whole  coast  from  Carthagena  to  Yucatan 
had  been  visited  by  many  adventurers,  di- 
viding the  country  among  them,  fighting 
with  each  other  as  occasion  offered,  slaughter- 
ing, mutilating  or  enslaving  the  Indians  as 
best  served  their  purpose  in  gathering  their 
gold." 

145 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

14.  "Before  the  death  of  Columbus  Spain  had 
taken  firm  possession  of  Cuba,  Porto  Rico  and 
San  Domingo,  and  she  stood  ready  to  seize  any 
of  the  adjoining  lands  or  islands  so  soon  as  gold, 
pearls  or  aught  else  of  value  should  be  found. 
Cruises  of  discovery  were  made  in  every  direc- 
tion, first,  indeed,  in  Central  and  South  America. 
In  1506  de  Solis  sailed  along  the  eastern  coast 
of  Yucatan.  In  1513  Vasca  Nunes  de  Balboa 
discovered  the  Pacific  Ocean  from  the  Isthmus 
of  Panama.  In  1513  Ponce  de  Leon  discovered 
the  peninsula  of  Florida.  In  1518  Valesques, 
governor  of  Cuba,  sent  Cortez  westward  with 
eleven  ships  and  over  six  hundred  men  to  make 
explorations.  Landing  at  Vera  Cruz,  Mexico, 
he  was  ordered  to  leave,  but  instead  destroyed 
his  ships,  gave  battle  to  Montezuma,  the  reigning 
king,  seized  and  held  him  as  a  hostage  for  the 
peaceable  conduct  of  his  subjects.  Montezuma 
became  a  vassal  to  the  Spanish  crown  and  stipu- 
lated to  pay  an  annual  tribute.  He  appealed 
to  his  people  to  be  reconciled  to  such  an  agree- 
ment, but  they  in  revolt  slew  him.  Cortez,  re- 
inforced, then  began  the  overthrow  of  the  na- 
tives, conquered  the  country,  and  Mexico  became 
a  province  of  Spain.  In  1519  Magellan  sought 
to  rival  Columbus  in  finding  the  western  passage 
to  the  Orient,  touched  the  Canaries,  explored  the 
coast  of  South  America,  passed  through  the 
straits  named  after  him,  discovered  the  Philippine 
146 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

Islands  (named  after  Philip  I),  and  though  him- 
self slain  by  natives,  one  of  his  ships  returned 
to  Spain,  the  first  in  history  to  make  the  circum- 
navigation of  the  globe.  In  154S  de  Soto  dis- 
covered the  Mississippi  river.  These  were  among 
the  most  important  of  the  early  Spanish  dis- 
coveries. 

"While  the  course  of  Spanish  adventure  was 
thus  in  the  earlier  years  of  the  sixteenth  century 
directed  towards  central  America,  leading  in  due 
season  to  such  events  as  the  discovery  of  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  the  conquest  of  Peru  and  Mexico 
and  the  exploration  of  the  western  coast  of  the 
present  United  States,  it  was  not  forgotten  that 
there  might  be  other  regions  further  north  on 
the  Atlantic  coast  worth  possessing.  Juan  Ponce 
de  Leon  was  commissioned  to  set  forth  on  these 
ventures.  He  did  not  go  very  far  north,  dis- 
covered the  Mississippi  river  at  about  the  boun- 
dary line  between  Mississippi  and  Tennessee,  and 
after  many  sufferings  and  misfortunes  was  slain 
and  buried  in  the  river  he  discovered.  Further 
attempts  were  made  at  exploring  and  conquering 
this  northern  country,  but  as  a  rule  they  failed, 
notably  one  made  by  Don  Tristam  de  Luna  just 
twenty  years  after  de  Soto  set  forth.  This 
proved  to  be  disastrous. 

"Tristam  de  Luna  at  first  refused  to  abandon 
his  enterprise,  and  insisted  on  being  left  behind 
with  a  few  followers,  but  he  was  recalled  by  the 

147 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

Viceroy  and  at  last  returned  to  Mexico  in  1561, 
about  two  years  from  the  time  of  his  setting  out. 
Thus  ended  the  most  carefully  prepared  and 
most  promising  attempt  ever  made  by  the  Span- 
iards to  colonize  Florida.  Fortunately  for  the 
progress  of  the  human  race  and  the  future  his- 
tory of  North  America,  all  their  efforts  to  gain 
a  foothold  north  of  the  gulf  of  Mexico  were  in 
the  main  unsuccessful."  (Scribner's  "History 
of  the  United  States.") 

15.  He  was  born  in  England  in  1539,  was  a  dis- 
tinguished navigator,  half-brother  of  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh,  and  reached  Newfoundland  which  he  put 
beneath  the  arms  of  Great  Britain  and  took  pos- 
session of  in  the  name  of  the  Queen,  Elizabeth 
then  reigning.  But  Sir  Humphrey  originally 
set  out  with  the  view  of  finding  a  shorter  pas- 
sage to  the  East  Indies,  the  same  as  Columbus, 
for  the  delusion  had  not  yet  ceased  to  possess 
the  age;  nor  did  any  of  them  know  but  that  in 
the  discoveries  thus  far  made  they  had  but  found 
the  western  portion  of  "Cathay."  Off  Cape 
Breton  he  encountered  a  great  storm,  in  which 
he  and  the  entire  crew  perished. 

Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  born  in  1552,  who  had  ac- 
companied Gilbert  on  his  expeditions,  afterwards 
secured  from  Queen  Elizabeth  the  grant  given  to 
him,  which  soon  expired.  He  hurriedly  secured 
another  grant  from  the  Queen,  and  sailing  by 
148 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

way  of  the  Canaries  and  West  Indies,  thus  still 
following  in  the  tracks  of  Columbus,  it  was 
"sixty-six  days  before  the  smell  of  the  land, — 
so  sweet  and  strong  a  smell," — warned  them  of 
their  near  approach  to  the  Western  continent. 
The  first  footprints  of  English  blood  on  the 
shores  of  the  New  World  were  made,  on  the  low 
sandy  beach  of  Chickonocomack,  still  often  called 
by  the  people  of  the  neighborhood  Hatteras, 
Cape  Hatteras,  or  Hatteras  Bank.  ...  In 
the  name  of  a  virgin  queen  Raleigh  was  permitted 
to  call  the  new  country  Virginia ;  as  a  reward  for 
his  part  in  its  discovery  the  honor  of  knighthood 
was  bestowed  upon  him. 

16.  As  an  illustration  of  the  stalwart  character 
and  exalted  quality  of  the  men  who  went  with 
Raleigh  and  afterwards  with  Granville  in  the 
same  colony,  mark  the  characteristics  of  Hariot, 
the  friend  and  literary  co-laborer  of  Raleigh. 

"Hariot  was  Raleigh's  friend  to  the  end  of  his 
career;  aided  him  in  that  'History  of  the  World' 
which  he  wrote  in  the  Tower;  of  him  it  is  ques- 
tioned whether  he  or  Descartes  invented  the  sys- 
tem of  algebraic  notation,  whether  he  or  Galileo 
was  the  first  observer  of  spots  upon  the  sun  and 
of  the  satellites  of  Jupiter — the  testimony  in 
Hariot's  favor  being  not  trivial.  Sir  Richard 
Granville,  who  later  presided  over  the  Colony,  off 
the  Azores,  fought  fifteen  great  Spanish  galleons 

149 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

fifteen  hours,  and  when  at  last  mortally  wounded, 
said  with  his  last  breath  in  the  heat  and  smoke 
of  battle,  'Here  die  I,  Richard  Granville,  with  a 
joyful  and  quiet  mind,  for  that  I  have  ended  my 
life  as  a  true  soldier  ought  to  do,  fighting  for 
country,  queen,  religion  and  honor.'  ...  It 
was  men  of  this  stamp  who  entered  into  the 
projects  of  Raleigh  to  plant  English  people, 
with  English  law  and  English  civilization,  in 
the  New  World."  (Scribner's  "History  of  the 
United  States.") 

17.  "The  many  and  varied  measures  taken  by 
Philip   to    enforce   obedience   in   the   Netherlands 
are  well  known.     .     .     .     We  see  that  Alva  was 
cruel  from  principle.     He  ruled  the  provinces  by 
arrests   and  executions ;  he  razed  the  houses  of 
the    condemned   to   the   ground,    and   confiscated 
their  property.     .     .     .     The  ancient  power  of 
the  estates  was  reduced  to  a  mere  name.      Span- 
ish troops  occupied  the  country  and  a  citadel  was 
erected   in   the  most   important   mercantile   city. 
The   duke   insisted   with   obstinate   despotism    on 
the   exaction   of  the   most   odious   taxes,    and  in 
Spain     .     .     .     people   asked  what  he  could  do 
with  all  the  money."     (Ranke's  "History  of  the 
Popes.") 

18.  "Alva  had  believed  his  work  at  an  end,  but 
the  struggle  was  in  fact  only  beginning 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

The  men  of  Leyden  declared  that  rather  than 
yield  they  would  devour  their  left  arms  to  enable 
themselves  to  continue  the  defence  with  their 
right.  They  took  the  bold  resolution  of  break- 
ing down  their  dams  and  falling  on  the  waves  of 
the  North  Sea  to  expel  the  besiegers.  ...  It 
was  the  heroic  age  of  Protestantism  in  Western 
Europe.  ...  In  the  Netherlands  the  power 
of  the  [Spanish]  government  had  fallen  to  ruin 
in  1576."  (Idem.) 

19.  "What  was  already  the  wealthiest  and 
strongest  of  the  regions  subject  to  Spain,  be- 
came through  it  one  of  the  first  of  the  self-sus- 
tained nations  of  Europe.  Bound  together  by 
the  Union  of  Utrecht  in  1579,  and  declaring  their 
independence  in  the  memorable  declaration  issued 
at  The  Hague  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  July,  1581, 
the  seven  provinces  determined  to  throw 
off  all  foreign  rule,  established  the  Republic  of  the 
United  Netherlands,  and  carried  on  the  conflict 
against  Spain  not  as  a  rebellion,  but  as  an  inde- 
pendent power.  ...  It  had  defeated  Spain 
literally  by  virtue  of  its  wonderful  commercial 
prosperity.  .  .  .  While  its  commerce  in 
Europe  was  of  very  great  importance,  the  real 
golden  prize,  which  the  new  nation  in  its  long 
conflict  had  almost  completely  taken  away  from 
Spain,  was  the  India  trade.  .  .  .  They  had 
not  been  idle  in  the  matter,  and  their  first  efforts, 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

like  all  others,  had  been  confidently  directed  to  the 
Arctic  Seas.  .  .  .  The  old  pathways  to  In- 
dia were  all  their  own;  they  had  thus  far  found 
the  way  effectually  barred  to  the  northwest. 
But  the  old  delusion  was  still  powerful: 
it  was  only  India  upon  which  all  minds  were  fixed ; 
and  we  shall  see  how  it  was  only  the  action  of 
one  navigator  that  turned  Dutch  enterprise  to- 
ward the  West  at  all."  (Scribner's  "History  of 
the  United  States.") 

%0.  "Hoping  to  open  a  passage  to  India, 
Hudson,  an  English  navigator,  offered  in  1609 
to  sail  under  the  authority  of  the  Dutch 
East  India  Company.  Driven  back  by  ice 
and  fog  from  the  northeast  course,  he  turned 
northwest.  Searching  up  and  down  near  the 
parallel  forty,  he  entered  the  mouth  of  the  great 
river  which  bears  his  name.  He  found  the  coun- 
try inviting  to  the  eye,  and  occupied  by  natives 
of  friendly  disposition.  The  subsequent  career 
of  this  bold  mariner  has  a  mournful  interest.  He 
never  returned  to  Holland,  but  touching  at  Dart- 
mouth, was  retained  by  the  English  authorities 
and  forbidden  longer  to  employ  his  skill  and  ex- 
perience for  the  benefit  of  the  Dutch.  Again 
entering  the  English  service  and  sent  once  more 
to  discover  the  northwest  passage,  he  sailed  into 
waters  of  the  bay  which  bears  his  name,  where 
cold  and  hunger  transformed  the  silent  discontent 
152 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

of  his  crew  into  open  mutiny  and  they  left  the 
fearless  navigator  to  perish  amid  the  icebergs  of 
the  frozen  north."  (Andrews'  "History  of  the 
United  States.") 

21.  The  pilgrims  were  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  in  number,  including  women  and  children. 
Their  object  was  to  plant  a  colony  on  the  shores 
of  the  Hudson,  but  after  having  been  driven  about 
for  some  time  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  they  were 
forced  to  land  on  that  arid  coast  of  New  Eng- 
land which  is  now  the  site  of  the  town  of  Plymouth. 
The  rock  is  still  shown  on  which  the  pilgrims  dis- 
embarked. 

"  'But  before  we  pass  on,'  continues  our  his- 
torian, 'let  the  reader  with  me  make  a  pause  and 
seriously  consider  this  poor  people's  present  con- 
dition, the  more  to  be  raised  up  to  admiration  of 
God's  goodness  towards  them  in  their  preserva- 
tion: for  being  now  passed  the  vast  ocean,  and 
a  sea  of  troubles  before  them  in  expectation,  they 
had  now  no  friends  to  welcome  them,  no  inns  to 
entertain  or  refresh  them,  no  houses,  or  much 
less  towns  to  repair  unto  to  seek  for  succor:  and 
for  the  season  it  was  winter,  and  they  that  know 
the  winters  of  the  country  know  them  to  be  sharp 
and  violent,  subject  to  cruel  and  fierce  storms, 
dangerous  to  travel  to  known  places,  much  more 
to  such  unknown  coasts.  Besides,  what  could 
they  see  but  a  hideous  and  desolate  wilderness, 

153 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

full  of  wilde  beasts,  and  wilde  men?  and  what 
multitudes  of  them  there  were,  they  then  knew 
not:  for  whichsoever  way  they  turned  their  eyes, 
save  upward  to  Heaven,  they  could  have  but  little 
solace  or  content  in  respect  of  any  outward  ob- 
ject; for  summer  being  ended,  all  things  stand 
with  a  weather-beaten  face,  and  the  whole  coun- 
try full  of  woods  and  thickets,  represented  a  wilde 
and  savage  hew ;  if  they  looked  behind  them,  there 
was  the  mighty  ocean  which  they  had  passed; 
and  was  now  as  a  man  in  bar  or  gulph  to  separate 
them  from  all  the  civil  parts  of  the  world.'  "  (De 
Tocqueville's  "Democracy  in  America.") 

22.  "Long  before  Lord  Baltimore's  settlement 
in  Maryland,  only  a  few  years,  indeed,  after  the 
settlement  of  Smith  in  Virginia,  the  Church  of 
Brownists  or  Independent  refugees,  whom  we  saw 
driven  in  the  reign  of  James  to  Amsterdam,  had 
resolved  to  quit  Holland  and  find  a  home  in  the 
wilds  of  the  New  World.  .  .  .  Returning 
from  Holland  to  Southampton,  they  started  in 
two  small  vessels  for  the  new  land:  but  one  of 
these  soon  put  back  and  only  its  companion,  the 
Mayflower,  a  bark  of  a  hundred  and  eighty  tons, 
with  forty-eight  emigrants  and  their  families  on 
board,  persisted  in  prosecuting  the  voyage.  The 
little  band  of  'Pilgrim  Fathers,'  as  after  times 
loved  to  call  them,  landed  on  the  barren  coast 
of  Massachusetts  at  a  spot  to  which  they  gave 
154 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

the  name  of  Plymouth,  in  memory  of  the  last 
English  port  at  which  they  touched.  .  .  . 
Resolute  and  industrious  as  they  were,  their  prog- 
ress was  very  slow;  and  at  the  end  of  ten  years 
they  numbered  only  three  hundred  souls. 
'Let  it  not  be  grievous  unto  you,'  some  of  their 
brethren  had  written  to  the  poor  emigrants  in 
the  midst  of  their  sufferings,  'that  you  have  been 
instrumental  in  breaking  the  ice  for  others.  The 
honor  shall  be  yours  to  the  world's  end.' " 
(Green's  "Short  History  of  the  English  People.") 

23.  "From  the  time  when  the  barbarians  over- 
ran the  Western  empire  to  the  time  of  the  re- 
vival of  letters,  the  influence  of  the  Church  of 
Rome  had  been  generally  favorable  to  science, 
to  civilization  and  to  good  government  But  dur- 
ing the  last  three  centuries  to  stunt  the  human 
mind  has  been  her  chief  object.  Throughout 
Christendom  whatever  advance  has  been  made  in 
knowledge,  in  freedom,  in  wealth,  and  in  the 
arts  of  life,  has  been  made  in  spite  of  her  and  has 
everywhere  been  in  inverse  proportion  to  her 
power.  The  loveliest  and  most  fertile  provinces 
of  Europe  have,  under  her  rule,  been  sunk  in 
poverty,  in  political  servitude  and  in  intellectual 
torpor,  while  Protestant  countries,  once  prover- 
bial for  sterility  and  barbarism,  have  been 
turned  by  skill  and  industry  into  gardens,  and 
can  boast  a  long  list  of  heroes,  statesmen,  philos- 

155 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

ophers    and    poets."      (Macaulay's    "History    of 
England.") 

24«.  "The  political  and  religious  schism  which 
had  originated  in  the  sixteenth  century  was,  dur- 
ing the  first  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century 
constantly  widening.  Theories  tending  to  Turk- 
ish despotism  were  in  fashion  in  Whitehall. 
Theories  tending  to  Republicanism  were  in  fashion 
with  a  large  portion  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
The  violent  prelates  who  were  to  a  man  zealous 
for  prerogative,  and  the  violent  Puritans  who 
were  to  a  man  zealous  for  the  privileges  of  Par- 
liament, regarded  each  other  with  animosity  more 
intense  than  that  which,  in  the  preceding  genera- 
tion, had  existed  between  Catholics  and  Protest- 
ants." (Idem.) 

"In  their  last  remonstrance  to  the  King  the 
Commons  had  denounced  Laud  as  the  chief  as- 
sailant of  the  Church  of  England ;  and  every  year 
of  his  primacy  showed  him  bent  on  justifying  the 
accusation.  .  .  .  But  backed  as  Laud  was 
by  the  power  of  the  Crown,  the  struggle  became 
more  hopeless  every  day.  While  the  Catholics 
owned  that  they  had  never  enjoyed  a  like  tran- 
quillity, while  the  fines  for  recusancy  were  reduced 
and  their  worship  suffered  to  go  in  private  houses, 
the  Puritan  saw  his  ministers  silenced  or  deprived, 
his  Sabbath  profaned,  the  most  sacred  act  of  his 
worship  brought  near,  as  he  fancied,  to  the  Roman 
156 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

mass.  Roman  doctrine  met  him  from  the  pul- 
pit, Roman  practices  met  him  in  the  Church. 
We  can  hardly  wonder  that  with  such  a  world 
around  them  'the  goodly  people  in  England  be- 
gan to  apprehend  a  special  Providence  in  raising 
this  plantation'  in  Massachusetts ;  and  'their 
hearts  were  generally  stirred  to  come  over.  It 
was  vain  that  weaker  men  returned  to  bring 
news  of  hardships  and  dangers,  and  told  how  two 
hundred  of  the  first  comers  had  perished  with  the 
first  winter.  A  letter  from  Winthrop  told  how 
the  rest  had  toiled  manfully  on.  'We  can  now 
enjoy  God  and  Jesus  Christ,'  he  wrote  to  those 
at  home,  'and  is  not  that  enough?  I  thank  God 
I  like  so  well  to  be  here  that  I  do  not  repent  my 
coming.  I  would  not  have  altered  my  course 
though  I  had  foreseen  these  afflictions.  I  never 
had  more  content  of  mind.'  "  (Green's  "Short 
History  of  the  English  People.") 

25.  "With  the  strength  and  manliness  of  Puri- 
tanism, its  bigotry  and  narrowness  had  crossed 
the  Atlantic  too.  Roger  Williams,  who  held  the 
doctrines  of  freedom  of  conscience,  was  driven 
from  the  new  settlement  to  become  a  preacher 
among  the  settlers  of  Rhode  Island. 
The  intensity  of  its  religious  sentiments  turned 
the  colony  into  a  theocracy. 

"  'To  the  end  that  the  body  of  the  Commons 
may  be  preserved  of  honest  and  good  men,  it  is 

157 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

ordered   and   agreed   that   for   the  time  to   come 
no  man  shall  be  admitted  to  the  freedom  of  the 
body  politic  but  such  as  are  members  of  some  of 
the   churches   within   the   bounds   of  the   same.' ' 
(Idem.) 

"Williams  had  the  temerity  to  teach  'that  the 
magistrate  had  no  right  to  meddle  with  any  man's 
conscience  or  religious  opinions,  and  that  the 
state  exceeded  its  just  power  when  it  assumed  to 
have  jurisdiction  over  any  other  relations  of  the 
citizen  than  those  of  person  and  property.'  .  .  . 
And  in  a  community  where  no  man  was  a  citizen 
except  he  was  a  church  member  and  no  man  was 
a  church  member  except  with  the  minister's  per- 
mission,  such  doctrine  was  dangerous  and  in- 
tolerable. .  .  .  He  was  stiff-necked  and 
would  not  bend,  and  sentence  of  banishment 
was  pronounced  upon  him."  (Scribner's  "His- 
tory of  the  United  States.") 

26.  Religious  enthusiast,  born  in  Alford,  Lin- 
colnshire, England,  about  1500.  She  followed 
John  Cotton  and  her  brother-in-law,  Wain- 
wright,  to  Boston,  where  she  was  admitted 
to  membership  in  the  church.  Being  a  woman 
of  strong  mind,  fluent  of  speech,  bold  in  de- 
fence of  her  convictions,  she  soon  acquired 
great  influence  in  the  church.  She  called 
meetings  of  the  women  of  the  church  to  discuss 
doctrines  and  sermons,  and  she  expressed  views 
158 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

on  religious  matters  which  had  offended  some  of 
her  fellow  passengers  on  the  voyage. 
Governor  Vane,  Cotton  and  Wainwright,  as  well 
as  all  the  members  of  the  church,  save  five,  were 
her  supporters,  while  the  country  churches  were 
solidly  against  her.  On  August  30,  1737,  an 
ecclesiastical  synod  at  Newton  condemned  her 
opinions.  .  .  .  After  a  trial  of  two  days' 
duration,  she  and  some  of  her  adherents  were 
sentenced  to  banishment  from  the  territory  of 
Massachusetts.  .  .  .  She  removed  into  the 
territory  of  the  New  Netherlands  to  avoid  perse- 
cution. The  Indians  and  the  Dutch  were  then  at 
war.  The  Indians  invaded  her  home,  murdered 
her,  and  carried  off  her  little  daughter. 

27.  The  terrible  delusion  of  belief  in  witch- 
craft accompanied  the  New  England  settlers,  and 
they  adopted  the  English  laws  against  it.  For  a 
long  time  it  was  simply  an  undemonstrative  be- 
lief, but  at  length  it  assumed  an  active  feature  in 
society  in  Massachusetts,  as  it  was  encouraged 
by  some  of  the  clergy  whose  influence  was  almost 
omnipotent.  .  .  .  An  Irish  woman  was  ac- 
cused of  being  a  witch.  .  .  .  Rev.  Cotton 
Mather,  a  superstitious,  credulous  and  egotistic 
clergyman,  a  firm  believer  in  witchcraft  and  who 
believed  America  was  originally  peopled  with  *a 
crew  of  witches  transported  hither  from  the  devil,* 
hastened  to  Danvers  with  other  clergymen,  as 

159 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

superstitious  as  himself.  .  .  .  Mather  and 
his  associates  were  satisfied  that  the  Irish  woman 
was  a  witch  and  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the 
poor  creature  hanged.  .  .  .  Malice,  rapacity 
and  revenge  often  impelled  persons  to  accuse 
others  who  were  innocent;  and  when  some  state- 
ment of  the  accused  would  move  the  court  in  favor 
of  the  prisoner,  the  accuser  would  solemnly  de- 
clare that  he  saw  the  devil  standing  beside  his 
victim  whispering  his  touching  words  in  his  ear 
or  her  ear.  And  the  absurd  statement  would  be 
believed  by  the  judge  on  the  bench. 
Neither  age,  sex  or  condition  were  spared. 
Finally  when  the  magnates  in  the 
Church  and  State  found  themselves  in  danger, 
they  suspected  that  they  had  been  acting  un- 
righteously toward  others,  and  cautiously  ex- 
pressed doubts  of  further  proceeding  against 
such  accused  persons. 

A  citizen  of  Andover  being  accused,  being  a 
much  stronger  character  than  was  common, 
promptly  sued  his  accusers  for  damages.  The 
tide  now  turned;  laws  were  enacted  against  fur- 
ther persecutions,  Cotton  Mather  was  popu- 
larly ridiculed,  and  was  himself  finally  sued  for 
slander. 

"This  episode  in  the  history  of  Massachusetts 
is  known  as   the  'Salem  Witchcraft.'     It  aston- 
ished   the    civilized   world."      (Harper's    "Cyclo- 
paedia of  United  States  History.") 
1 60 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

28.  "The  laws   and  representative  institutions 
of  England  were  first   introduced   into   the  New 
World  by  the  settlement  of  Virginia.     Some  years 
later  a  principle  unknown  to  England  as  it  was 
to  the  greater  part  of  Europe  found  its  home  in 
another  colony,  which  received  its  name  of  Mary- 
land from  Henrietta  Maria,  the  Queen  of  Charles 
the  First.      Calvert,  Lord  Baltimore,  one  of  the 
best  of  the  Stuart  counsellors,  was  forced  by  his 
conversion  to  Catholicism  to  seek  shelter  for  him- 
self  and   colonists    of   his   new   faith   in   districts 
across  the  Potomac,  and  round  the  head  of  the 
Chesapeake.     As    a    purely    Catholic    settlement 
was  impossible,  he  resolved  to  open  the  new  colony 
to  men  of  every  faith.     'No  person  within  this 
province,'  ran  the  earliest  law  of  Maryland,  'pro- 
fessing to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  shall  be  in  any 
way  troubled,  molested  or  discountenanced  for  his 
or  her  religion,  or  in  the  free  exercise  thereof.' ' 

29.  "Amerigo  Vespucci,  a  Florentine  merchant, 
enjoyed  the  glory  of  giving  his  name  to  the  new 
hemisphere,  in  which  he  had  not  an  inch  of  ground. 
He  pretended  to  have  been  the  first  to  discover 
the  Continent.     Even  if  it  be  true  that  this  dis- 
covery was   his,  the  glory  would  not  belong  to 
him;  it  belongs  incontestably  to  him  whose  cour- 
age and  genius  induced  him  to  make  the  first  voy- 
age."     (Voltaire.) 

"We  are  told  that  he  falsely  pretended  to  have 

161 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

visited  Paria  and  Maracaibo  in  1497  in  order  to 
claim  priority  over  Columbus  in  the  discovery  of 
the  continent.  What  continent?  When  Ves- 
pucci wrote  that  letter  to  Soderini  in  1504,  neither 
he  nor  anybody  else  suspected  that  what  we  now 
call  America  had  been  discovered.  .  .  .  There 
is  no  reason  whatever  for  imagining  dishonesty 
in  his  narrative,  and  no  reason  for  not  admitting 
it  as  evidence  on  the  same  terms  as  those  upon 
which  we  admit  other  contemporary  documentary 
evidence.  .  .  .  At  length  the  gigantic  learn- 
ing of  Alexander  Humboldt  was  brought  to  bear 
on  the  subject  and  enough  was  accomplished  to 
vindicate  forever  the  character  of  Americus." 
(John  Fiske's  "The  Discovery  of  America,"  which 
see  for  a  learned  and  extended  dissertation  in 
vindication  of  Vespucci.) 

30.  "After  a  month  of  such  idleness  they  crossed 
the  Bahama  channel,  and  on  the  twenty-seventh 
of  March,  which  happened  to  be  Easter  Sunday 
and  which  the  Spaniards  call  Pascua  de  Flores, 
they  saw  and  passed  an  island  on  the  opposite 
coast.  Two  or  three  days  later  Ponce  de  Leon 
arrived  on  the  main  land,  .  .  .  taking  pos- 
session of  it  in  the  name  of  Spain.  Because  the 
land  was  first  seen  on  the  Pascua  de  Flores,  and 
because  it  was  fair  to  look  upon,  he  named  it 
Florida.  (Scribner's  "History  of  the  United 
States.") 
162 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

.  "Slavery  was  introduced  about  the  year 
by  a  Dutch  vessel  which  landed  twenty  ne- 
groes on  the  banks  of  the  James.  .  .  .  The 
men  sent  to  Virginia  were  seekers  of  gold,  adven- 
turers, without  resources  and  without  character, 
whose  turbulent  and  restless  spirit  endangered 
the  infant  colony  and  rendered  its  progress  un- 
certain. The  artisans  and  agriculturists  arrived 
afterwards ;  and  although  they  were  a  more  moral 
and  orderly  race  of  men,  they  were  in  no  wise 
above  the  level  of  the  inferior  classes  in  England. 
The  colony  was  scarcely  established  when 
slavery  was  introduced,  and  this  was  the  main 
circumstance  which  has  exercised  so  prodigious 
an  influence  on  the  character,  the  laws  and  all  the 
future  prospects  of  the  South.  Slavery,  as  we 
shall  afterwards  show,  dishonors  labor;  it  intro- 
duces idlem  ss  into  society,  and  with  idleness, 
ignorance  and  pride,  luxury  and  distress. 
The  influence  of  slavery  united  to  the 
English  character  explains  the  manners  and  the 
social  condition  of  the  Southern  States."  (De 
Tocqueville's  "Democracy  in  America.") 

3£.  "Across  the  Atlantic  the  field  was  wholly 
his  own,  and  he  [Pitt]  had  no  sooner  entered 
office  than  the  desultory  raids  which  had  hitherto 
been  the  only  resistance  to  French  aggression 
were  superseded  by  a  large  and  comprehensive 
plan  of  attack.  The  sympathies  of  the  colony 

163 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

were  won.  .  .  .  They  raised  at  Pitt's  call 
twenty  thousand  men,  and  taxed  themselves 
heavily  for  their  support.  .  .  .  The  Ameri- 
can militia  supported  the  British  force  in  a  vigor- 
ous campaign  against  the  forts,  and  though 
Montcalm  with  a  far  inferior  force  was  able  to 
repulse  General  Abercrombie  from  Ticonderoga, 
a  force  from  Philadelphia  and  Virginia,  guided 
and  inspired  by  the  courage  of  George  Washing- 
ton, made  itself  master  of  Duquesne.  The  name 
of  Pittsburg,  which  was  given  to  their  new  con- 
quest, still  commemorates  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
colonists  for  the  great  minister  who  first  opened 
for  them  the  West.  .  .  .  Pitt  had  resolved, 
not  merely  to  foil  the  ambition  of  Montcalm,  but 
to  destroy  the  French  rule  in  America  altogether. 
Wolfe  headed  a  charge  which  broke  the 
French  line,  but  a  ball  pierced  his  breast  in  the 
moment  of  victory.  .  .  .  The  fall  of  Mont- 
calm in  the  moment  of  his  defeat  completed  the 
victory,  and  the  submission  of  Canada  .  .  . 
put  an  end  to  the  dream  of  a  French  empire  in 
America."  (Green's  "Short  History  of  the  Eng- 
lish People.") 

33.  "To  check  this  Republican  spirit,  to  crush 
all  dreams  of  severance,  and  to  strengthen  the 
unity  of  the  British  empire  was  one  of  the  chief 
aims  of  the  young  sovereign.  .  .  .  The  part 
which  George  the  Third  succeeded  in  playing  was 
164 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

undoubtedly  a  memorable  one.  In  ten  years  he 
reduced  government  to  a  shadow,  and  turned  the 
loyalty  of  his  subjects  at  home  into  disaffection. 
In  twenty  he  had  forced  the  American  colonies 
into  revolt  and  independence  and  brought  Eng- 
land to  what  then  seemed  to  be  the  brink  of  ruin. 
He  had  a  smaller  mind  than  any  Eng- 
lish king  before  him  save  James  the  Second.  He 
was  wretchedly  educated  and  his  natural  powers 
were  of  the  meanest  sort.  .  .  .  His  only  feel- 
ing toward  great  men  was  one  of  jealousy  and 
hate.  .  .  .  But  dull  and  petty  as  his  temper 
was,  he  was  clear  as  to  his  purpose  and  obstinate 
in  the  pursuit  of  it.  And  his  purpose  was  to 
rule."  (Idem.) 

34.  "George  III  could  not  rest  without  assert- 
ing his  supremacy  over  America.  He  made  an 
arrangement  with  the  East  India  company  by 
which  tea  could  be  brought  to  America,  spite  of 
the  hated  tax,  cheaper  than  in  England. 
The  colonists  saw  through  the  cunning  attempt, 
and  the  tide  of  resistance  rose  higher  than  ever. 
At  New  York  and  Philadelphia  the  ships  were 
forced  to  put  to  sea  again  without  unlading. 
At  Boston  there  was  a  deadlock ;  the 
people  would  not  let  the  tea  be  landed;  the  gov- 
ernor would  not  let  the  ships  sail  without  unlad- 
ing. On  the  evening  of  December  26,  1773,  the 
tax  falling  due  the  next  day,  a  party  of  fifty  citi- 

165 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

zens  disguised  as  Indians  boarded  the  ships  and 
threw  three  hundred  and  forty  chests  of  tea  into 
the  harbor.  The  Boston  Tea  Party  aroused  all 
the  obstinacy  of  George  III."  (Andrews'  "His- 
tory of  the  United  States.") 

35.  "On  Major  Pitcairn  and  his  immediate 
command  was  thrown  the  responsibility,  which 
soon  proved  so  critical,  of  the  outbreak  of  the 
war.  The  sun  had  not  yet  risen  when  Pitcairn, 
hurrying  on  his  men,  approached  Lexington  Com- 
mon. This  was  a  little  green  in  front  of  a  meet- 
inghouse. Obedient  to  the  alarm,  the  Lexington 
minute  men  had  formed  some  time  before.  They 
had  sent  scouts  down  the  silent  road,  who  had  re- 
turned, saying  there  was  no  enemy,  so  slow  had 
been  Smith's  progress.  On  this  announcement 
the  men  had  withdrawn  into  the  meetinghouse. 
At  a  second  alarm  they  paraded  again.  They 
were  under  command  of  John  Parker,  a  veteran 
of  the  French  war.  As  the  column  under  Pit- 
cairn approached,  each  party  could  observe  the 
numbers  of  the  other.  Parker  saw  that  his  com- 
mand was  wholly  outnumbered  and  directed  his 
men  to  retire.  Pitcairn,  at  the  same  moment, 
rushed  forward  with  the  words  which  were  long 
afterwards  repeated  in  every  household:  'Dis- 
perse, rebels,  disperse!' 

"The   English   troops   fired   another  volley  in 
triumph    and    pressed    on    to    Concord. 
166 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

The  Concord  minute  men  had  formed  and  some 
of  their  neighbors  from  Lincoln,  the  next  town, 
had  joined  them  before  Pitcairn  and  Colonel 
Smith  arrived  there.  Some  of  the  companies 
marched  down  the  road  toward  Lexington. 
Here  Barret,  their  colonel,  joined 
them.  .  .  .  Barret  found  that  he  was  out- 
numbered and  withdrew  his  whole  force  across 
the  Concord  River,  where  he  held  them,  watch- 
ing the  English  column  in  their  native  village. 
Colonel  Smith,  the  English  commander,  attended 
to  the  duties  assigned  him.  .  .  .  But  this 
did  not  last  long.  Shots  at  the  North  Bridge 
told  all  men,  if  any  had  doubted,  that  war  had 
begun.  ...  In  this  encounter  at  the  bridge 
the  American  militia  first  attacked  the  King's 
troops.  .  .  .  Meanwhile  from  every  quarter 
the  minute  men  were  pouring  down.  They  did 
not  know  what  was  the  true  'objective,'  but  they 
meant  to  be  in  time  and  they  were  in  time.  The 
whole  country  between  Boston  and  Concord  was 
aroused.  .  .  .  'They  seemed  to  drop  from 
the  skies,'  says  an  English  soldier.  .  .  .  All 
that  night  the  march  of  the  minute  men  from 
every  town  in  Massachusetts,  from  Rhode  Island, 
from  Connecticut,  and  from  New  Hampshire, 
kept  the  country  towns  awake.  .  .  .  The  in- 
telligence had  flown  over  the  land  that  the  Eng- 
lish troops  had  fired  on  the  Lexington  militia, 
and  with  it  had  gone  the  news  that  the  column 

167 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

had  been  driven  back  to  Boston.     The  story  grew 

as   it  went   from   province   to   province. 

No  fiery  cross  ever  stirred  a  nation  to  more  eager 

enthusiasm."      (Scribner's  "History  of  the  United 

States.") 

36.  "On  the  night  of  June  sixteenth  a  thousand 
men  armed  with  pick  and  spade  stole  out  of  the 
American  camp.  At  dawn  the  startled  British 
found  that  a  redoubt  had  sprung  up  in  the  night 
on  Breed's  Hill  (henceforward  Bunker  Hill)  in 
Charlestown.  Boston  was  endangered  and  the 
rebels  must  be  dislodged.  About  half  past  two 
two  thousand  five  hundred  British  regulars 
marched  silently  and  in  perfect  order  up  the 
hill,  expecting  to  drive  out  the  'rustics'  at  the 
first  charge.  Colonel  Prescott,  the  commanding 
officer,  waited  till  the  regulars  were  within  ten 
rods.  'Fire !'  A  sheet  of  flame  burst  from  the 
redoubt.  The  front  ranks  of  the  British  melted 
away,  and  his  Majesty's  invincibles  retreated  to 
the  foot  of  the  hill.  Again  they  advanced. 
Again  that  terrible  fire.  Again  they  fall  back. 
Once  more  the  plucky  fellows  form  for  the  charge, 
this  time  with  bayonets  alone.  When  they  are 
within  twenty  yards,  the  muskets  behind  the  earth 
works  send  forth  one  deadly  discharge  and  then 
are  silent.  Their  ammunition  is  exhausted.  The 
British  swarm  into  the  redoubt.  The  Conti- 
nentals reluctantly  retire,  Prescott  among  the 
1 68 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

last,  his  coat  rent  with  bayonets.  ...  It 
was  a  virtual  victory  for  the  untrained  farmer 
troops  and  all  America  took  courage."  (An- 
drews' "History  of  the  United  States.") 

37.  "At  Bunker  Hill  an  undisciplined  body  of 
farmers,    ill-armed,   weary,    hungry    and   thirsty, 
calmly   awaited   the   charge   of  old   British   cam- 
paigners and  by  a  fire  of  dreadful  precision  drove 
them  back.     'They  may  talk  of  their  Fontenoys,' 
said  the  British  general,  Howe,  'but  there  was  no 
such  fire  there.'"      (Idem.) 

38.  "The  nearest  military  posts  were   Ticon- 
deroga    and    Crown    Point.     From    the    former, 
especially,  officers  of  the  Crown  came  with  their 
demands  to  the  farms  that  lay  scattered  on  the 
slopes  of  the  Green  Mountains.     ...     It  held 
at    once    the    outlook    towards    Canada    and   the 
nearest    approach   to   the   people   of   the  unruly 
grants    (the   outlawed  primitive   settlers   in   New 
Hampshire    and    Vermont).     To    Western    New 
England  it  was  the  best  known  fortified  post  and 
the  one  most  identified  with  frontier  life,  while  in 
the  East  it  had  a  wide  fame  through  its  recent 
history.     To    this    point,   therefore,   many   eyes 
were    turned    when    the    difficulties    with    Great 
Britain   began    to    reach   open   warfare. 

At  Bennington  there  was  a  rendezvous  and  two 
men — Hickock  and  Phelps — made  an  excursion  to 

169 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

Ticonderoga  to  get  exact  information  of  the  con- 
dition of  the  fort.  .  .  .  Phelps,  disguising 
himself,  entered  the  fort  as  a  rustic  who  desired 
to  be  shaved,  and  while  hunting  for  the  barber, 
asked  questions  and  kept  his  eyes  open,  playing 
the  part  of  an  ignorant  rustic.  .  .  .  Here 
Allen,  with  his  Green  Mountain  Boys,  was  ready 
for  the  attack,  and  the  command  of  the  principal 
body  of  the  troops  was  given  to  him. 
The  fort  was  surprised,  and  the  victory  was  al- 
ready won  without  a  blow,  as  the  Green  Moun- 
tain Boys  set  up  a  shout  on  the  parade  facing 
the  barracks.  It  was  so  early  that  the  Garrison 
was  still  asleep.  Allen  forced  one  of  the  sentries 
to  show  him  the  commanding  officer's  quarters, 
and  standing  at  the  entrance  he  called  on  Captain 
Delaplace  to  come  forth  and  surrender  his  gar- 
rison. The  Captain  sprang  out  of  bed,  and  half 
dressed,  made  his  appearance  at  the  door:  'By 
what  authority?'  he  said.  'In  the  name  of  the 
Great  Jehovah  and  the  Continental  Congress,' 
was  Allen's  reply.  Delaplace,  seeing  the  uncouth 
figure  before  him,  was  ready  to  dispute  the  com- 
mission ;  but  Allen  with  his  sword  was  an  unequal 
disputant.  The  commander  yielded  and  ordered 
his  men  to  be  paraded  without  arms.  The  sur- 
render threw  into  the  hands  of  the  Green  Moun- 
tain Boys  one  captain,  one  lieutenant,  and  forty- 
eight  subalterns  and  privates  .  .  .  and  mili- 
tary stores  included  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
170 


eight  pieces.  The  first  surrender  of  the  British 
was  on  the  day  of  the  meeting  of  the  second  Con- 
tinental Congress."  (Scribner's  "History  of 
the  United  States.") 

39.  "Up  to  the  Autumn  of  1775  the  growth 
of  the  feeling  in  favor  of  Independence  had  been 
very  slow.  But  after  the  royal  proclamation 
had  severed  all  relations  except  those  between  a 
government  and  rebels  who  'have  traitorously 
levied  war'  against  it,  the  sentiment  spread 
through  the  country.  .  .  .  When  Congress 
assembled  in  May,  1775,  the  Massachusetts  dele- 
gates were  suspected  of  leaning  toward  separa- 
tion, which  even  the  most  active  Sons  of  Liberty 
in  Philadelphia  were  unprepared  for,  and  they 
said  to  Adams  on  his  arrival,  'You  must  not  utter 
the  word  Independence,  nor  give  the  least  hint 
or  insinuation  of  the  idea,  either  in  Congress  or 
in  any  private  conversation;  if  you  do,  you  are 
undone,  for  the  idea  is  as  unpopular  in  Pennsyl- 
vania and  all  the  Middle  and  Southern  states  as 
the  Stamp  Act  itself.'  Early  in  1776  Adams 
wrote  that  scarcely  a  newspaper  was  issued  which 
did  not  openly  vindicate  the  opinions  recently  an- 
nounced. .  .  .  This  statement  of  reasons  for 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  not  so  easily 
agreed  upon  as  the  resolution  to  declare  it.  The 
Committee  on  the  third  asked  permission  to  sit 
again  after  a  second  day's  debate.  Changes  had 

171 


been  made  in  Jefferson's  original  draft  by  col- 
leagues on  the  committee  appointed  for  its  prepa- 
ration, still  others  were  made  by  the  house,  but 
none  were  so  important  or  so  significant  as  the 
omission,  in  deference  to  the  South,  of  the 
.  .  .  passage  relating  to  slavery.  .  .  . 
But  the  great  body  of  the  document  was  left 
as  Jefferson  had  written  it.  Finally,  late 
on  the  afternoon  of  July  fourth  it  was  ap- 
proved and  passed  and  ordered  to  be  printed." 
(Idem.) 

"These  decisive  steps  were  followed  by  the 
great  act  with  which  American  history  begins, 
the  adoption  on  the  fourth  of  July,  1776,  by  the 
delegates  in  Congress  of  a  declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence. 'We,'  so  ran  its  solemn  words,  'the 
Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America 
in  Congress  assembled  appealing  to  the  Supreme 
Judge  of  the  world  for  the  rectitude  of  our  in- 
tentions, solemnly  publish  and  declare  that  these 
United  Colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be, 
Free  and  Independent  States.' "  (Green's 
"Short  History  of  the  English  People.") 

4*0.  "Throughout  the  country,  in  the  army  and 
in  the  town  meetings  from  time  to  time  as  the 
declaration  was  received,  it  was  accepted  with 
similar  manifestations  of  jubilation,  tending 
sometimes  to  acts  of  extravagance.  As  in  Phila- 
delphia the  people  tore  down  and  burned  all  sym- 
172 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

bols  of  royal  authority  in  public  places,  so  in 
New  York  the  mob  pulled  down  the  gilded  leaden 
equestrian  statue  of  George  that  stood  in  the 
Bowling  Green.  The  head  was  taken  off  and 
placed  in  a  wheelbarrow  and  wheeled  to  the  gov- 
ernor's house.  There  was  so  much  excuse  for 
this  act — that  lead  was  greatly  needed.  Ladies 
at  Litchfield,  Conn.  .  .  .  molded  the  re- 
mainder of  the  statue  into  forty-two  thousand 
bullets  to  be  shot  at  the  soldiers  of  the  King." 
(Scribner's  "History  of  the  United  States.") 

4?1.  "Most  potent  of  all  as  a  cause  of  the  reso- 
lution to  separate  was  Thomas  Paine's  pamphlet 
'Common  Sense,'  published  in  January,  1776,  and 
circulated  widely  throughout  the  colonies.  Its 
lucid  style,  its  nomely  way  of  putting  things,  and 
its  appeals  to  Scripture,  must  have  given  it  at 
any  rate  a  strong  hold  upon  the  masses  of  the 
people.  It  was  doubly  and  trebly  triumphant 
from  the  fact  that  it  voiced,  in  clear,  bold  terms, 
a  long  growing  popular  conviction  of  the  pro- 
priety of  independence,  stronger  than  men  had 
dared  to  admit,  even  to  themselves."  (Andrews' 
"  History  of  the  United  States.") 

42.  "In  March,  1775,  Franklin  maintained  the 
assurance  he  had  given  Lord  Chatham  in  the  pre- 
vious year  that  he  never  had  heard  in  America 
an  expression  in  favor  of  independence  'from  any 

173 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

person  drunk  or  sober.'  .  .  .  Many  years 
after  the  Independence  of  America  had  been 
achieved,  William  Corbett,  on  his  return  to  Eng- 
land after  a  long  sojourn  in  the  United  States, 
wrote  as  follows :  .  .  .  'A  little  thing  some- 
times produces  a  great  effect;  an  insult  offered 
to  a  man  of  great  talent  and  unconquerable  per- 
severance, has  in  many  instances  produced 
.  .  .  most  tremendous  effects ;  and  it  appears 
to  me  very  clear  that  some  beastly  insults,  offered 
to  Mr.  Paine  while  he  was  in  Excise  in  England 
was  the  real  cause  of  the  Revolution  in  America ; 
for,  though  the  nature  of  the  cause  was  such  as 
I  have  heretofore  described,  though  the  principles 
were  firm  in  the  minds  of  the  people  of  that  coun- 
try, still,  it  was  Mr.  Paine,  and  Mr.  Paine  alone, 
who  brought  those  principles  into  action.' 
So  he  [Paine]  anticipated  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence by  more  than  eight  months  with  one 
of  his  own."  (Conway's  "Life  of  Thomas 
Paine.") 

"America  has  known  some  utterances  of  the 
lips  equivalent  to  decisive  victories  in  the  field — 
as  some  of  Patrick  Henry's  and  the  address  of 
President  Lincoln  at  Gettysburg.  But  of  utter- 
ances by  the  pen  none  have  achieved  such  vast 
results  as  Paine's  'Common  Sense'  and  his  first 
'Crisis.'  Before  the  battle  of  Trenton  the  half- 
clad,  disheartened  soldiers  of  Washington  were 
called  together  in  groups  to  listen  to  that  thrill- 
174 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

ing  exhortation.     The  opening  words  alone  were 
a  victory."     (Idem.) 

43.  "A  recent  writer  says  that  Paine's  'Com- 
mon Sense'  was  'just  what  the  moment  demanded,' 
and  that  it  'may  be  briefly  described  as  a  plea 
for    independence    and    continental    government.' 
In  setting  the  nation  at  once  to  a  discussion  of 
the  principles   of  such  government,  he  led  it  to 
assume   the  principle   of  independence ;   over   the 
old    English    piers    on    their    quicksands,    which 
some  would  rebuild,  he  threw  his  republican  arch, 
on  which  the  people  passed  from  shore  to  shoro. 
He  and  Franklin  did  the  like  in  framing  the  Penn- 
sylvania Constitution  in  1776,  by  which  the  chasm 
of  'Toryism'  was   spanned.     .     .     .     To  demol- 
ish Burke  [In  his  'Rights  of  Man'],  was  the  least 
part   of   Paine's   task.     .     .     .     His   real  design 
was  to  write  a  Constitution  for  the  English  na- 
tion.    And  to-day  the  student  of  political  history 
may  find  in  Burke's  pamphlet  the  fossilized,  and 
in   Paine's    (potentially)    the  living   constitution 
of  Great  Britain."      (Idem.) 

44.  "  'Thomas   Paine,'   said  President  Andrew 
Jackson  to  Judge  Hortell,  'Thomas  Paine  needs 
no  monument  made  by  hands ;  he  has  erected  a 
monument  in  the  hearts  of  all  lovers  of  liberty.' 
.     .     .     'His  principles  rest  not.     His  thoughts, 
untraceable  like   his   dust,   are  blown   about   the 

175 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

world  which  he  held  in  his  heart.  For  a  hundred 
years  no  human  being  has  been  born  in  the  civ- 
ilized world  without  some  spiritual  tincture  from 
that  heart,  whose  every  pulse  was  for  humanity, 
whose  last  beat  broke  a  fetter  of  fear,  and  fell 
on  the  throne  of  thrones."  (Idem.) 

45.  "The  English  had  a  considerable  force  in 
Canada,  and  in  1776  had  completely  repulsed  an 
attack  which  the  Americans  had  made  upon  that 
province.  The  British  ministry  resolved  to  avail 
themselves  in  the  next  year  of  the  advantage 
which  the  occupation  of  Canada  gave  them,  not 
merely  for  the  purpose  of  defence,  but  for  the 
purpose  of  striking  a  vigorous  and  crushing  blow 
against  the  revolted  colonies.  With  this  in  view 
the  army  in  Canada  was  greatly  enforced. 
Without  question  the  plan  was  ably  formed;  and 
had  the  success  of  the  execution  been  equal  to 
the  ingenuity  of  the  design,  the  reconquest  or 
submission  of  the  thirteen  United  States  must  in 
all  human  probability  have  been  extinguished  be- 
fore it  existed  a  second  year.  .  .  .  Burgoyne 
had  gained  celebrity  by  some  bold  and  dashing 
exploits  in  Portugal  during  the  last  war;  he  was 
personally  as  brave  an  officer  as  ever  headed  Brit- 
ish troops ;  he  had  considerable  skill  as  a  tacti- 
cian; and  his  general  intellectual  ability  and  ac- 
quirements were  of  a  high  order.  .  .  .  Bur- 

176 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

goyne  assembled  his  troops  and  confederates  near 
the  river  Bouquet,  on  the  west  side  of  Lake  Cham- 
plain.  .  .  .  The  army  proceeded  by  water  to 
Crown  Point;  .  .  .  He  landed  there  with- 
out opposition,  but  the  reduction  of  Ticonderoga, 
a  fortification  about  twelve  miles  to  the  south  of 
Crown  Point,  was  a  more  serious  matter.  Ticon- 
deroga .  .  .  was  considered  to  be  the  key 
to  the  route  which  Burgoyne  was  to  follow. 
.  .  .  Burgoyne  now  invested  it  with  great 
skill,  and  the  American  general,  St.  Claire,  who 
had  only  an  ill-equipped  army  of  about  3,000 
men,  evacuated  it  on  the  fifth  of  July. 
The  loss  of  the  British  in  these  engagements  was 
trifling.  .  .  .  Burgoyne  had  reached  the  left 
bank  of  the  Hudson  on  July  thirty.  Hitherto  he 
had  overcome  every  difficulty  which  the  enemy 
and  the  nature  of  the  country  had  placed  in  his 
way.  His  army  was  in  excellent  order  and  the 
highest  spirits."  (Creasy's  "Decisive  Battles  of 
the  World.") 

46.  "Meanwhile,  .  .  ;  Sir  Henry  Clinton, 
a  brave  and  skillful  officer,  was  left  with  a  consid- 
erable force  at  New  York,  and  he  undertook  the 
task  of  moving  up  the  Hudson  to  cooperate  with 
Burgoyne.  .  .  .  As  soon  as  he  received  them 
[re-enforcements],  Clinton  embarked  about  three 
thousand  of  his  men  on  a  flotilla,  convoyed  by 


177 


some  ships  of  war  under  Commander  Hotham, 
and  proceeded  to  force  his  way  up  the  river." 
(Idem.) 

47.  "It  exceeds  the  power  of  words  to  describe 
the  pitiable  condition  to  which  the  British  army 
was  now  reduced.  The  troops  were  worn  down 
by  a  series  of  toil,  privation,  sickness,  and  desper- 
ate fighting.  ...  In  these  circumstances  and 
thus  weakened,  they  were  invested  by  an  army  of 
four  times  their  own  number,  whose  position  ex- 
tended three  parts  of  a  circle  around  them;  who 
refused  to  fight  them,  knowing  their  own  weak- 
ness, and  who,  from  the  nature  of  the  ground, 
could  not  be  attacked  in  any  part."  (Botta's 
"American  History.") 

"Unfortunately,  Burgoyne  and  Clinton  were 
each  ignorant  of  the  other's  movement;  but  if 
Burgoyne  had  won  his  battle  on  the  seventh,  he 
must,  on  advancing,  have  soon  learned  the  tidings 
of  Clinton's  success  and  Clinton  would  have  heard 
of  his.  A  junction  would  soon  have  been  made  of 
the  two  victorious  armies  and  the  great  object  of 
the  campaign  might  yet  have  been  accomplished. 
.  .  .  Burgoyne  now  took  up  his  last  position 
on  the  height  near  Saratoga  and  hemmed  in  by 
the  enemy,  who  refused  an  encounter, 
he  there  lingered  until  famine  compelled  him  to 
capitulate.  .  .  .  The  articles  of  capitulation 
were  settled  on  the  fifteenth  of  October,  and  on 
178 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

that  very  evening  a  messenger  arrived  from  Clin- 
ton with  an  account  of  his  successes  and  with  tid- 
ings that  part  of  his  force  had  penetrated 
within  fifty  miles  of  Burgoyne's  camp.  But  it 
was  too  late."  (Creasy's  "Decisive  Battles  of 
the  World.") 

48.  Says  Burke  in  "Annual  Register"  for  1777 : 
"Such   was    the   rapid   torrent   of    success    which 
swept   everything  before  the   Northern   army   in 
its  onset.     It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  if  both  of- 
ficers  and  private   men   were  highly   elated  with 
their  good  fortune,  and  deemed  their  prowess  to 
be  irresistible ;  if  they  regarded  their  enemy  with 
greatest  contempt,  considered  their  own  toils  to  be 
nearly  at  an  end.     .     .     .     At  home  the  joy  and 
exultation  was  extreme;  not  only  at  court,  but 
with  all  those  who  hoped  or  wished  the  unqualified 
subjugation  and  unconditional  submission  of  the 
Colonies.     The  loss  in  reputation  to  the  Amer- 
icans   was    greater.     All    the    contemptuous    and 
most  degrading  charges  which  had  been  made  by 
their  enemies  of  their  wanting  the  resolution  and 
abilities  of  men     .     .     .     were  now  repeated  and 
believed.     ...     It  was  not  difficult  to  diffuse 
an  opinion  that  the  war  was  over." 

49.  "Even   of   those   great    conflicts   in   which 
hundreds    of   thousands   have   been   engaged    and 
tens  of  thousands  have  fallen,  none  has  been  more 

179 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

fruitful  of  results  than  this  surrender  of  thirty- 
five  hundred  fighting  men  at  Saratoga.  It  not 
merely  changed  the  relations  of  England  and  the 
feelings  of  Europe  toward  these  insurgent  Col- 
onies, but  it  has  modified  for  all  time  to  come  the 
connection  between  every  colony  and  every  mother 
state."  (Lord  Mahan.) 

"In  December  a  treaty  was  arranged 
by  which  France  acknowledged  the  Independent 
United  States  of  America.  This  was,  of  course, 
tantamount  to  a  declaration  of  war  with  England. 
Spain  soon  followed  France,  and  before  long  Hol- 
land took  the  same  course."  (Creasy's  "Decisive 
Battles  of  the  World.") 

50.  "No  nobler  figure  ever  stood  in  the  fore- 
front of  a  nation's  life.  Washington  was  grave 
and  courteous  in  address,  his  manners  were  sim- 
ple and  unpretending,  his  silence  and  the  serene 
calmness  of  his  temper  spoke  of  a  perfect  self 
mastery ;  but  there  was  little  in  his  outer  bearing 
to  reveal  the  grandeur  of  soul  which  lifts  his  fig- 
ure with  all  the  simple  majesty  of  an  ancient 
statue  out  of  the  smaller  passions,  the  meaner  im- 
pulses of  the  world  around  him.  ...  It  was 
only  as  the  weary  fight  went  on  that  the  Colonists 
learned  little  by  little  the  greatness  of  their  leader, 
his  clear  judgment,  his  heroic  endurance,  his  si- 
lence under  difficulties,  his  calmness  in  the  hour  of 
danger  or  defeat,  the  patience  with  which  he 
1 80 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

waited,  the  quickness  and  hardness  with  which  he 
struck,  the  lofty  and  serene  sense  of  duty  that 
never  swerved  from  its  task  through  resentment  or 
jealousy,  that  never  through  war  or  peace  felt 
the  touch  of  a  meaner  ambition,  that  knew  no  aim 
save  that  of  returning  to  his  own  fireside  when 
their  freedom  was  secured.  It  was  almost  uncon- 
sciously that  men  learned  to  cling  to  Washington 
with  a  trust  and  faith  such  as  few  other  men  have 
won,  or  to  regard  him  with  a  reverence  which 
still  hushes  us  in  presence  of  his  memory.  Even 
America  hardly  recognized  his  greatness  till  death 
set  its  seal  on  'the  man,  first  in  war,  first  in  peace, 
and  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  fellow  country- 
men.' "  (Green's  "Short  History  of  the  English 
People.") 

"He  rarely  laughed  and  he  was  without  humor, 
though  he  wrote  and  conversed  well.  He  had  the 
integrity  of  Aristides.  .  .  .  To  subordinate, 
to  foe,  even  to  malicious  plotter  against  him,  he 
was  almost  guiltily  magnanimous.  .  .  .  Be- 
come the  most  famous  man  alive,  idolized  at  home, 
named  by  every  tongue  in  Europe,  praised  by 
kings  and  great  ministers,  who  compare  him  with 
Caesar,  Charlemagne  and  Alfred  the  Great,  his 
head  swam  not,  but  with  steadfast  mind  and  heart 
he  moved  on  the  simple  pursuit  of  his  country's 
weal."  (Prof.  E.  Benjamin  Andrews.) 

"Until  time  shall  be  no  more,"  said  Lord  Broug- 
ham, "will  a  test  of  the  progress  which  our  race 

181 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

has  made  in  Wisdom  and  Virtue  be  derived  from 
the  veneration  paid  to  the  immortal  name  of 
George  Washington." 

Premier  Gladstone  said :  "If  among  all  the  ped- 
estals supplied  by  history  for  public  characters 
of  extraordinary  nobility  and  purity  I  saw  one 
higher  than  all  the  rest,  and  if  I  were  required  at 
a  moment's  notice  to  name  the  fittest  occupant  for 
it,  my  choice  would  light  upon  George  Washing- 
ton." 

51.  Nathan  Hale  was  born  June,  1735,  and  died 
September,  1776.  His  affectionate  and  magnetic 
character  is  revealed  in  the  words  of  Dr.  Eneas 
Munson,  at  the  time  of  his  graduation: 

"He  was  almost  six  feet  in  height,  perfectly 
proportioned,  and  in  figure  and  deportment  he 
was  the  most  manly  man  I  ever  met.  His  chest 
was  broad,  his  muscles  were  firm,  his  face  wore  a 
most  benign  expression,  his  complexion  was  rose- 
ate, his  eyes  were  light  blue,  and  beamed  with  in- 
telligence; his  hair  was  soft  and  light  brown  in 
color,  and  his  speech  was  rather  low,  clear  and 
musical.  His  personal  beauty  and  grace  of  man- 
ner were  most  charming.  Why,  all  the  girls  in 
New  Haven  were  in  love  with  him  and  wept  tears 
of  real  sorrow  when  they  heard  of  his  sad  fate." 

"The  news  of  Lexington  reached  the  quiet  vil- 
lage where  he  was  teaching  and  a  town  meeting 
was  held  at  once.  .  .  .  He  enrolled  himself 
182 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

as  a  volunteer,  and  was  made  a  lieutenant. 
.  .  .  In  response  to  a  call  from  General 
Washington  he  volunteered  to  enter  the  British 
lines  and  procure  intelligence.  Disguising  him- 
self as  a  school  master  and  loyalist,  he  visited  all 
the  British  camps  on  Long  Island  and  in  New 
York,  openly  making  observations,  drawings  and 
memoranda  of  fortifications.  As  he  was  about 
returning  he  was  apprehended  and  taken  before 
Sir  William  Howe,  who,  upon  evidence  found  in 
his  shoes,  condemned  him  to  be  executed  before 
sunrise  the  next  morning.  .  .  .  His  execution 
took  place  in  Colonel  Henry  Rutger's  orchard, 
near  Market  street  and  East  Broadway.  As  he 
ascended  the  scaffold  he  said:  'You  are  shedding 
the  blood  of  the  innocent ;  if  I  had  ten  thousand 
lives,  I  would  lay  them  down  in  defence  of  my  in- 
jured, bleeding  country.'  And  his  last  words  were : 
'I  only  regret  that  I  have  but  one  life  to  lose  for 
my  country.' '  (Appleton's  "Cyclopaedia  of 
American  Biography.") 

52.  "Marquis  de  Lafayette,  French  soldier, 
born  6  September,  1757,  died  May  20th,  1834. 
Having  been  commissioned  a  captain  of  artillery 
in  a  regiment  stationed  at  Metz  toward  the  end 
of  1776,  he  happened  to  meet  at  dinner  the  Duke 
of  Gloucester,  brother  of  George  III,  and  heard 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  other 
events  that  had  lately  occurred  in  the  United 

183 


States.  An  enthusiastic  sentiment  of  devotion  to 
'liberty'  and  the  'rights  of  man'  was  then  grow- 
ing up  among  youthful  Frenchmen  in  all  classes  of 
society.  .  .  .  DeKalb  introduced  him  [La- 
fayette] to  Silas  Dean,  who  gave  him 
a  letter  of  introduction  to  Congress,  in  which  he 
alluded  to  the  great  dignity  and  influence  of  La- 
fayette's family  and  asked  for  him  a  major  gen- 
eral's commission.  .  .  .  He  set  sail  from  Pas- 
sage April  26,  1777,  taking  with  him  De  Kalb 
and  eleven  other  officers,  and  landed  June  four- 
teenth at  Georgetown,  South  Carolina,  whence  he 
proceeded  to  Charleston.  Congress  was  at  that 
time  beset  with  so  many  applications  from  foreign 
officers  in  quest  of  adventure  .  .  .  that  La- 
fayette at  first  met  with  a  cold  reception. 
The  next  day  he  was  introduced  to  Washington, 
and  the  lifelong  friendship  between  the  two  begun. 
Among  all  the  eminent  Frenchmen  of  the 
revolutionary  period  he  was  perhaps  the  only  one 
in  whose  career  there  was  nothing  to  be  ashamed 
of.  His  traits  of  character  were  rather  solid 
than  brilliant ;  and  he  was  too  thoroughly  imbued 
with  American  ideas  to  identify  himself  with  any 
one  of  the  violent  movements  originating  in  the 
French  Revolution  of  1789.  His  love  of  Consti- 
tutional liberty  was  too  strong  for  him  to  coop- 
erate with  either  the  Bourbons  or  with  Jacobins 
or  with  Bonapartists ;  and  from  all  three  quar- 
ters attempts  have  been  made  to  detract  from  his 
184 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

rightful  fame.  In  European  history  his  place, 
though  not  among  the  foremost,  is  respectable; 
in  American  history  he  is  not  only  a  very  pictur- 
esque and  interesting  figure,  but  his  services  in  our 
struggle  for  Independence  were  of  substantial  and 
considerable  character."  (Appleton's  "Cyclo- 
pzedia  of  American  Biography.") 

53.  "Arnold  in  an  evil  hour  allowed  himself  to 
be  persuaded  into  the  course  that  has  blackened 
his  name  forever.  Three  years  had  elapsed  since 
Saratoga  and  the  fortunes  of  the  Americans  in- 
stead of  improving  had  grown  worse  and  worse. 
The  army  clad  in  rags,  half  starved  and 
unpaid,  was  nearly  ripe  for  the  mutiny  that  broke 
out  a  few  months  later,  and  desertions  to  the  Brit- 
ish lines  averaged  more  than  a  hundred  a  month. 
The  spirit  of  desertion  now  seized  upon  Arnold, 
with  whom  the  British  commander  had  for  some 
time  tampered  through  the  mediation  of  John  An- 
dre. .  .  .  Stung  by  the  injustice  he  had  suf- 
fered, and  influenced  by  his  Tory  surroundings. 
Arnold  made  up  his  mind  to  play  a  part  like  that 
which  General  Monk  had  played  in  the  restoration 
of  Charles  II  to  the  British  throne.  By  putting 
the  British  in  possession  of  the  Hudson  river,  he 
would  give  them  all  that  they  sought  to  obtain 
by  the  campaigns  of  1776-77,  and  the  American 
cause  would  thus  become  so  hopeless  that  an  op- 
portunity would  be  offered  for  negotiation." 

185 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

(Appleton's     "Cyclopaedia     of    American     Biog- 
raphy.") 

"For  eighteen  months  he  had  been  in  communi- 
cation with  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  to  whom,  through 
Major  John  Andre,  he  had  given  from  time  to 
time  much  valuable  information.  His  schemes 
were  now  complete  through  which  he  believed  that, 
by  the  sacrifice  of  his  country,  he  could  achieve 
rank,  fame  and  wealth  for  himself.  It  is  not  un- 
usual to  explain  Arnold's  crime  by  the  suggestion 
of  some  extraordinary  impulse — as  that  a  proud 
and  haughty  spirit  could  not  brook  certain  hu- 
miliations which  had  been  put  upon  him  in  the 
American  army,  that  a  lofty  ambition  led  him  to 
extravagance  in  his  living  from  which  it  was  diffi- 
cult, if  not  impossible,  to  extricate  himself,  while 
the  very  heedlessness  with  which  they  were  in- 
curred was  the  evidence  only  of  a  warm  and  gen- 
erous nature.  It  is  difficult  to  admit  that  his 
conduct  may  be  so  explained  when  his  whole 
career,  both  before  and  after  his  treason,  is  con- 
sidered. He  was  certainly  distinguished  for  his 
wonderful  energy  and  remarkable  physical  cour- 
age, and  as  a  soldier  these  seem  to  have  been  his 
chief  merits.  But  there  was  something  in  the  way 
of  his  success  which  from  the  beginning  of  his 
public  life  always  confronted  him  among  those 
who  knew  him  best  and  those  whose  duty  it  was  to 
fathom  his  true  character.  There  was  an  ap- 
parently insurmountable  distrust  of  his  integrity, 
186 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

and  with  some  a  vague  but  positive  suspicion  of 
his  loyalty.  His  dash  excited  admiration,  and  at 
first  won  him  hosts  of  unthinking  friends ;  but  the 
more  reflecting  looked  for  and  did  not  find  in  his 
conduct  that  rigid  rule  of  a  severe  morality  and 
that  keen  sense  of  honor  of  which  he  was  so  apt 
in  boasting.  .  .  .  Clinton  could  have  saved 
Andre — as  Washington  let  him  know — by  the  sur- 
render of  Arnold;  and  it  is  to  the  honor  of  the 
British  general  that  he  would  not  betray  his 
plighted  faith  to  a  traitor  even  to  save  his  friend. 
The  penalty  of  the  crime  fell  upon  the  accomplice ; 
the  chief  criminal  was  paid  his  price  in  a  commis- 
sion as  brigadier-general,  and  six  thousand,  three 
hundred  pounds  sterling.  Pensions  of  five  hun- 
dred pounds  a  year  to  Mrs.  Arnold  and  a  hundred 
pounds  a  year  to  each  of  her  children,  were  also 
awarded  when  Arnold  took  his  family  to  England." 
(Scribner's  "History  of  the  United  States.") 

54?.  "By  the  thirtieth  of  September  Yorktown 
was  surrounded  from  a  point  on  the  river  above 
to  a  point  below,  the  French  being  on  the  right 
and  the  Americans  on  the  left.  Cornwallis  re- 
tired within  his  works,  and  for  the  next  nine  days 
he  saw  weaving  round  him  a  mingled  web  of 
ditches,  redoubts  and  batteries  from  which  he 
could  never  break.  He  kept  up  a  frequent  fire  on 
the  busy  soldiers,  whose  task  was  never  intermitted 
by  night  or  by  day  and  who  were  sometimes 

187 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

brought  down  dead  or  wounded ;  but  there  was  no 
reply  till  the  ninth  of  October  when  the  first  par- 
allel was  finished.  .  .  .  For  four  days  the  fire 
was  incessant ;  most  of  the  batteries  of  the  enemy 
were  ruined,  their  guns  were  dismounted,  the  larg- 
est English  man  of  war  and  two  transports  in  the 
harbor  were  set  on  fire  and  destroyed.  The  sit- 
uation of  Cornwallis  was  becoming  daily  more  des- 
perate; of  his  seven  thousand  men,  two  thousand 
were  in  hospitals,  incapable  of  service;  his  assail- 
ants were  not  less  than  fifteen  thousand  and  by  a 
second  parallel  they  had  advanced  to  within  three 
hundred  yards  of  his  works.  .  .  .  Yorktown 
was  no  longer  tenable,  and  before  sunset  of  that 
day  Cornwallis  offered  to  surrender.  On  the 
nineteenth  the  terms  of  capitulation  were  con- 
cluded. .  .  .  The  surrender  of  Cornwallis 
was  virtually  the  end  of  the  war  between  England 
and  America."  (Idem.) 

55.  "The  accumulation  of  debts  rendered  the 
courts  of  justice  in  the  minds  of  many  mere  'en- 
gines of  destruction';  the  increasing  distress  in 
private  affairs,  the  depression  in  commerce,  and 
the  burden  of  Federal  taxation,  swelled  the  pop- 
ular discontent.  The  old  methods  of  opposition 
to  British  tyranny  were  resumed  in  this  new  op- 
position to  what  was  imagined  to  be  Federal  tyr- 
anny. Local  conventions  were  held  and  commit- 
tees formed  and  the  movement  was  spreading  into 
188 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

the  neighboring  states.  .  .  .  At  Worcester 
and  at  Springfield  attempts  were  made  to  prevent 
the  sitting  of  Court  and  at  the  latter  place  was 
ludicrously  successful.  Here  also  the  insurgents 
threatened  the  arsenal  under  the  lead  of  Daniel 
Shays,  who  had  been  a  captain  in  the  Continental 
army.  The  state  militia  drove  the  rebels  from 
Springfield  and  finally  dispersed  them."  (Idem.) 
"When  the  Shays  Rebellion  was  put  down,  the 
Governor  requested  the  neighboring  states  to  lend 
their  aid  in  bringing  the  insurgents  to  justice, 
and  all  complied  with  the  request  except  the  states 
of  Vermont  and  Rhode  Island.  The  legislature  of 
Rhode  Island  sympathized  with  the  rebels  and  re- 
fused to  allow  the  Governor  to  issue  a  warrant 
for  their  arrest.  ...  A  feeling  of  compas- 
sion for  the  insurgents  was  widely  spread  in,  Mas- 
sachusetts. In  March  the  leaders  were  tried  and 
convicted.  .  .  .  At  the  annual  election  in 
April  the  candidates  for  the  governorship  were 
Bowdoin  and  Hancock,  and  it  was  generally  be- 
lieved that  the  latter  would  be  more  likely  to  par- 
don the  convicted  men.  So  strong  was  this  feel- 
ing that,  although  much  gratitude  was  felt  toward 
Bowdoin,  to  whose  energetic  measures  the  sup- 
pression of  the  insurrection  was  due,  Hancock  ob- 
tained a  large  majority.  When  the  question  of 
pardon  came  up  for  discussion,  Samuel  Adams, 
who  was  then  President  of  the  Senate,  was  strongly 
opposed  to  it.  'In  monarchies,'  he  said,  'the 

189 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

crime  of  treason  and  rebellion  may  admit  being 
pardoned  or  lightly  punished;  but  the  man  who 
dares  to  rebel  against  the  laws  of  a  Republic  ought 
to  suffer  death.'  .  .  .  But  in  spite  of  this 
view  .  .  .  the  clemency  of  the  American  tem- 
perament prevailed,  and  Governor  Hancock  par- 
doned all  the  prisoners."  (Fiske's  "Critical 
Period  of  American  History.") 

56.  "The  years  immediately  after  the  war  were 
an  extremely  critical  period.  The  Colonies  had, 
indeed,  passed  through  the  Red  Sea,  but  the  wil- 
derness still  lay  before  them."  (Andrews'  "His- 
tory of  the  United  States.") 

"The  United  States  had  acquired  no  respect 
as  a  Nation.  'The  most  remarkable  thing,' 
wrote  Adams,  'in  the  King's  speech  and  in  the 
debates  is  that  every  member  has  entirely  forgot- 
ten that  there  is  any  such  place  as  the  United 
States  of  America.'  .  .  .  The  dangers  at 
home  were  even  greater.  Not  only  were  the 
states  arrayed  against  Congress  whenever  their 
local  interests  seemed  in  jeopardy,  but  popular 
conventions  and  neighborhood  meetings  began  to 
arrogate  authority."  (Scribner's  "History  of  the 
United  States.") 

"Such  was   the   constitution  under  which   the 

United  States  began  to  drift  toward  anarchy  even 

before  the  close  of  the  Revolution.     .     .     .     Had 

the  country  put  forth  its  strength  in  1781  as  it 

190 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

did  in  1864^,  an  army  of  ninety  thousand  men 
might  have  overwhelmed  Clinton  in  the  North 
and  Cornwallis  at  the  South.  .  .  .  Had  it  put 
forth  its  full  strength  in  1777,  four  years  of  ac- 
tive warfare  might  have  been  spared.  Mr.  Lecky 
explains  this  difference  by  his  favorite  hypothesis 
that  the  American  Revolution  was  the  work  of  a 
few  ultra-radical  leaders,  with  whom  the  people 
were  not  in  general  sympathy."  (Fiske's  "Criti- 
cal Period  of  American  History.") 

57.  "During  the  two  years  of  negotiations  and 
waiting  for  the  consummation  of  peace  between 
the  allied  powers,  there  were  no  general  military 
operations.     .     .     .     Financial    difficulties     con- 
tinued to  beset  the  Republic ;     .     .     .     the  indus- 
try of  the  country  was  paralyzed,  commerce  was 
almost   annihilated,   poverty   was    universal,    and 
the  revulsion  of  a  long  war  brought  its  own  in- 
evitable troubles."      (Scribner's  "History  of  the 
United  States.") 

58.  "That  an  army  half  starved,  half  naked, 
without  pay  and  with  nothing  to  do,  should  become 
discontented  and  ripe  for  mischief,  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at.     .     .     .     Some  of  them  knew  almost 
no  other  government  than  military  rule;  they  felt 
its  strength  in  the  creation  of  a  nation,  and  the 
instruments  of  that  achievement  they  held  in  their 
own  hands.     For  such  civil  government  as  there 

191 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

was  they  had  small  respect,  for  they  saw  its  im- 
becility in  the  long  suffering  years,  in  hunger,  in 
nakedness,  in  the  poverty  to  which  their  own  de- 
votion to  their  country  had  brought  their  wives 
and  children  at  home.  ...  If  their  wrongs 
were  ever  to  be  righted,  they  felt  that  they  must 
be  righted  by  themselves,  and  righted  now  while  it 
was  in  their  power."  (Idem.} 

59.  "Some  eighty  soldiers  of  the  Pennsylvania 
line,  mutinous  from  discomfort  and  want  of  pay, 
broke  from  their  camp  at  Lancaster  and  marched 
down  to  Philadelphia,  led  by  a  sergeant  or  two. 
They  drew  up  the  line  before  the  State  House, 
where  Congress  was  assembled  and  after  passing 
the  grog  began  throwing  stones  and  pointing 
their  muskets  toward  the  windows.  They  de- 
manded pay  and  threatened  if  it  were  not  forth- 
coming to  seize  the  members  of  Congress  and  hold 
them  for  hostages,  or  else  to  break  into  the  bank 
where  the  Federal  deposits  were  kept. 
Thus  in  a  city  of  thirty-two  thousand  inhabitants, 
the  largest  city  in  the  country,  the  Government 
of  the  United  States,  the  body  which  had  just 
completed  the  treaty  browbeating  England  and 
France,  was  ignominiously  turned  out  of  doors  by 
a  handful  of  drunken  mutineers.  The  affair  was 
laughed  at  by  many,  but  sensible  men  keenly  felt 
the  disgrace.  .  .  .  The  army  became  more 
unpopular  than  ever.  .  .  .  Are  we  not  poor 
192 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

enough  already,  cried  the  farmers,  that  we  must 
be  taxed  to  support  in  idle  luxury  a  riotous  rab- 
ble of  soldiery,  or  create  an  aristocracy  of  men 
with  gold  lace  and  epaulettes,  who  will  presently 
plot  against  our  liberties?"  (Fiske's  "Critical 
Period  of  American  History.") 

60.  "The  progress  of  the  insurrection  in  Ver- 
mont, New  Hampshire,  and  Massachusetts,  as 
well  as  the  troubles  in  Rhode  Island,  had  alarmed 
the  whole  country.  It  was  feared  that  the  in- 
surgents in  these  States  might  join  forces  and  in 
some  way  kindle  a  flame  that  would  run  through 
the  land.  .  .  .  Things  had  come  to  such  a 
pass  that  people  of  all  shades  of  opinion  were  be- 
ginning to  agree  upon  one  thing — *,hat  something 
must  be  done,  and  done  quickly.  .  .  .  These 
troubles  show  how  impractical  was  the  attempt  to 
create  a  national  domain  in  any  part  of  the  coun- 
try which  contained  a  considerable  population. 
The  instinct  of  self  government  was  too  strong  to 
allow  it.  Any  such  population  would  have  refused 
to  submit  to  ordinances  of  Congress.  To  obey 
the  parent  state,  or  to  set  up  for  one's  self — these 
were  the  only  alternatives  which  ordinary  men  at 
that  time  could  understand.  Experience  had  not 
yet  ripened  their  minds  for  comprehending  a  tem- 
porary condition  of  semi-independence,  such  as 
exists  to-day  under  our  territorial  governments. 
.  .  .  Thus  only  three  months  before  the  Fed- 

193 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

eral  Convention  Was  to  meet,  if  indeed  it  ever  was 
to  meet,  Congress  was  decisively  informed  that  it 
would  not  be  allowed  to  take  any  effectual  meas- 
ures for  raising  a  revenue.  There  seemed  now 
nothing  left  for  Congress  to  do  but  to  give  its 
sanction  to  the  proposed  Convention. 
All  at  once  the  people  began  everywhere  to  feel  an 
interest  in  the  proposed  Convention,  and  pres- 
ently Massachusetts  changed  her  attitude.  Up  to 
this  time  Massachusetts  had  been  as  obstinate  in 
her  assertion  of  local  independence  as  any  of  the 
thirteen  states.  .  .  .  The  Convention  held  its 
meetings  in  that  plain  brick  building  in  Philadel- 
phia already  immortalized  as  the  place  from  which 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  published  to 
the  world."  (Fiske's  "Critical  Period  of  Amer- 
ican History.") 

61.  "Thus  at  length  was  realized  the  sublime 
conception  of  a  nation  in  which  every  citizen  lives 
under  two  complete  and  well  rounded  systems  of 
law — the  state  law  and  the  federal  law,  each  with 
its  legislature,  its  executive  and  its  judiciary  mov- 
ing one  within  the  other,  noiselessly  and  without 
friction.  It  was  one  of  the  longest  reaches  of 
constructive  statesmanship  ever  known  in  the 
world.  ...  As  the  meeting  was  breaking  up 
and  Washington  arose,  Franklin  pointed  to  the 
chair  and  made  it  the  text  for  a  prophecy.  'As 
I  have  been  sitting  here  all-  these  weeks,'  he  said, 
194 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

'I  have  often  wondered  whether  yonder  sun  was 
rising  or  setting.  But  now  I  know  that  it  is  a  ris- 
ing sun.' "  (Idem.) 

"As  the  British  constitution  is  the  most  subtle 
organism  which  has  proceeded  from  progressive 
history,  so  the  American  constitution  is  the  most 
wonderful  work  ever  struck  off  at  a  given  time  by 
the  brain  and  purpose  of  man."  (Gladstone.) 

62.  "While  events  we  have  heretofore  contem- 
plated seemed  to  prophesy  the  speedy  dissolution 
and  downfall  of  the  half-formed  American  Union, 
a  series  of  causes,  obscure  enough  at  first,  but 
emerging  gradually  into  distinctness  and  then 
into  prominence,  were  preparing  the  way  for  the 
foundation  of  a  national  sovereignty.  The 
growth  of  this  sovereignty  proceeded  stealthily 
along  such  ancient  lines  of  precedent  as  to  take 
ready  hold  of  people's  minds,  although  few,  if  any, 
understood  the  full  purport  of  what  they  were  do- 
ing. Ever  since  the  days  when  our  English  fore- 
fathers dwelt  in  village  communities  in  the  for- 
ests of  northern  Germany,  the  idea  of  a  common 
land  or  folkland — a  territory  belonging  to  the 
whole  community  and  upon  which  new  communi- 
ties might  be  organized  by  a  process  analogous  to 
what  physiologists  call  cell-multiplication — had 
been  perfectly  familiar  to  everybody.  Townships 
budded  from  village  or  parish  folkland  in  Mary- 
land and  Massachusetts  in  the  seventeenth  century 

195 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

just  as  they  had  done  in  England  before  the  time 
of  Alfred.  The  critical  period  of  the  Revolution 
witnessed  the  repetition  of  this  process  on  a  gi- 
gantic scale.  It  witnessed  the  creation  of  a  na- 
tional territory  beyond  the  Alleghanies — an  enor- 
mous folkland  in  which  all  the  thirteen  original 
states  had  a  common  interest  and  upon  which  new 
and  derivative  communities  were  already  begin- 
ning to  organize  themselves.  .  .  .  Without 
studying  the  creation  of  this  national  domain  be- 
tween the  Alleghanies  and  the  Mississippi,  we  can- 
not understand  how  our  Federal  Union  came  to  be 
formed."  (Fiske's  "Critical  Period  of  American 
History.") 

63.  "Throughout  the  Revolutionary  War  the 
Americans  claimed  this  territory  as  part  of  the 
United  States ;  but  when  once  it  passed  from  un- 
der the  control  of  Great  Britain  to  whom  did  it 
belong?  To  this  question  there  were  various  and 
conflicting  answers.  North  Carolina,  indeed,  had 
already  taken  possession  of  what  was  afterwards 
called  Tennessee,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  war 
Virginia  had  annexed  Kentucky.  As  to  these 
points  there  could  be  little  or  no  dispute.  But 
with  the  territory  north  of  the  Ohio  it  was  very 
different.  Four  states  laid  claim  either  to  the 
whole  or  to  parts  of  the  territory,  and  these 
claims  were  not  simply  conflicting  but  irreconcil- 
able. 

196 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

"The  Charters  of  Massachusetts  and  Connect- 
icut were  framed  at  a  time  when  the  people  had 
not  got  over  the  notion  that  this  part  of  the  Con- 
tinent was  scarcely  wider  than  Mexico,  and  those 
Colonies  had  received  the  royal  permission  to  ex- 
tend from  sea  to  sea.  The  region  claimed  by 
Connecticut  was  a  narrow  strip  running  over 
northern  portions  of  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana 
and  Illinois,  and  we  have  seen  how  much  trouble 
was  occasioned  in  Pennsylvania  by  this  circum- 
stance. But  New  York  laughed  to  scorn  these 
claims  of  Connecticut.  .  .  .  According  to 
Virginia  it  made  little  difference  what  Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut  and  New  York  thought  about 
the  matter,  for  every  acre  of  land  fro*~i  the  Ohio 
river  to  Lake  Superior  belonged  to  her.  Was  she 
not  the  lordly  'Old  Dominion,'  out  of  which  every 
one  of  the  states  had  been  carved?  ...  Of 
these  conflicting  claims  those  of  New  York  and 
Virginia  were  the  most  grasping  and  the  most 
formidable  because  they  concerned  a  region  into 
which  immigration  was  beginning  to  pour. 
In  January,  1781,  Virginia  offered  to  surrender 
all  the  territory  west  of  the  Ohio.  ...  It 
was  New  York,  indeed,  that  set  the  praiseworthy 
example,  .  .  .  but  Virginia  gave  up  a 
princely  territory  of  which  she  was  actually  in 
possession.  ...  In  this  plan,  known  as  the 
Ordinance  of  1784,  Jefferson  proposed  to  divide 
the  northwestern  territory  into  ten  states,  or  just 

197 


twice  as  many  as  have  actually  grown  out  of  it. 
It  is  interesting  to  trace  the  immediate 
origin  of  the  famous  Ordinance  of  1787. 
It  was  provided  that  the  northwestern  territory 
should  ultimately  be  carved  into  states,  not  ex- 
ceeding five  in  number,  and  any  one  of  these  might 
be  admitted  into  the  Union  as  soon  as  its  popu- 
lation had  reached  60,000.  In  the  meantime  the 
whole  territory  was  to  be  governed  by  officers  ap- 
pointed by  Congress  and  required  to  take  an  oath 
of  allegiance  to  the  United  States. 
Nothing  could  have  been  more  emphatically  an  ex- 
ercise of  national  authority ;  yet,  as  Madison  said, 
while  warmly  commending  the  act,  Congress  did 
it  'without  the  least  color  of  Constitutional  au- 
thority.' "  (Idem.) 

"On  Monday,  September  17,  1787,  the  Consti- 
tution finally  agreed  upon  was  signed  by  the  dele- 
gates .  .  .  and  submitted  to  Congress,  which 
in  turn  called  upon  the  states  in  separate  conven- 
tions to  act  upon  the  instrument,  the  acceptance 
of  nine  states  being  requisite  before  it  could  be 
declared  adopted.  .  .  .  One  by  one  the  states 
fell  into  line,  until  on  the  twenty-first  of  June, 
New  Hampshire,  the  ninth  state,  ratified  the  Con- 
stitution. Two  conventions  were  still  in  session 
at  that  date  in  the  important  states  of  Virginia 
and  New  York."  (Scribner's  "History  of  the 
United  States.") 

198 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

64.  "Jefferson's  temper  was  exceedingly  placid, 
and  his   disposition  was   sweet  and   sympathetic. 
He  was  deeply  interested  in  all  the  generous  theo- 
ries   of    the    eighteenth    century    concerning    the 
rights  of  man  and  the  perfectibility  of  human  na- 
ture, and,  like  most  of  the  philosophers  whom  he 
admired,  he  was  a  sturdy  foe  to  religious  intoler- 
ance and  priestcraft.     He  was  in  his  way  a  much 
more  profound  thinker  than  Hamilton,  though  he 
had  no  such  constructive  genius  as  the  latter.     As 
a  political  leader  he  was  superior  to  any  other 
man  of  his  age ;  and  his  warm  sympathies,  his  al- 
most feminine  tact,  his  mastery  of  the  dominant 
political   ideas   of   the   time,   and,   above   all,   his 
unbounded  faith  in  the  commonsense  of  the  people 
and  in  their  essential  rectitude  of  purpose  served 
to  give  him  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  command- 
ing   positions    ever   held    by    any    personage    in 
American     history."      (Fiske's     "The     American 
Revolution.") 

65.  "Neither  his  retirement  from  public  office, 
his  eminent  services,  nor  his  advanced  age,"  said 
Henry  Clay  in  his  speech  on  the  New  Army  Bill, 
referring  to  Jefferson,  "can  exempt  this  patriot 
from    the   coarse    assault    of   party   malevolence. 
No,  sir;  in  1801  he  snatched  from  the  rude  hand 
of   usurpation    the    violated    constitution    of   his 
country,  and  that  is  his  crime.     He  preserved  that 
instrument  in  form  and  substance  and  spirit,  a 

199 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

precious  inheritance  for  generations  to  come,  and 
for  this  he  can  never  be  forgiven.  How  vain  and 
impotent  is  party  rage  directed  against  such  a 
man.  He  is  not  more  elevated  by  his  lofty  resi- 
dence upon  the  summit  of  his  own  favorite  moun- 
tain than  he  is  lifted  by  the  serenity  of  his  mind 
and  the  consciousness  of  a  well  spent  life,  above 
the  malignant  passions  and  bitter  feelings  of  the 
day.  No,  his  own  beloved  Monticello  is  not  more 
moved  by  the  storms  that  beat  against  its  sides 
than  is  this  illustrious  man  by  the  howlings  of  the 
whole  British  pack  set  loose  from  the  Essex  ken- 
nel." 

66.  "He  soon  found  himself  ill  at  ease  in  his 
place.  He  had  left  Paris  when  the  fall  of  the 
Bastile  had  been  a  recent  event,  and  when  the  rev- 
olutionary movement  still  promised  to  hopeful 
spirits  the  greatest  good  to  France  and  to  Europe. 
He  left  his  native  land  a  Whig  of  the 
Revolution;  he  returned  to  it  a  Republican-Dem- 
ocrat. .  .  .  He  brought  to  New  York  a  set- 
tled conviction  that  the  Republican  is  the  only 
form  of  government  that  is  not  robbery  and  or- 
ganized violence.  Feeling  thus,  he  was  grieved 
and  astonished  to  find  a  distrust  of  republican 
government  prevalent  in  society  and  to  hear  a 
preference  for  a  monarchical  form  frequently  ex- 
pressed. .  .  .  He  abolished  all  usages  that 
savored  of  royalty,  such  as  the  conveyance  of 
200 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

ministers  in  national  vessels,  the  celebration  of  his 
own  birthday  by  a  ball,  the  appointments  of  fasts 
and  thanksgiving  days,  the  making  of  public  tours 
and  official  visits.  He  refused  to  receive  while 
traveling  any  mark  of  attention  that  would  not 
have  been  paid  to  him  as  a  private  citizen,  his  ob- 
ject being  both  to  republicanize  and  secularize 
the  government  completely."  (Appleton's  "Cy- 
clopaedia of  American  Biography.") 

67.  "The  most  important  business  then  before 
Congress  was   the  ratification  of  peace,  but  the 
radical  difficulties  of  the  situation  arose  from  the 
shattered  finances  and  from  the  helplessness  and 
imbecility  of  the  confederation.     Hamilton  flung 
himself  into  these  troubles  with  the  enthusiasm  of 
his  youth  and  genius,  but  all  in  vain.     The  case 
was    hopeless.     He   extended   his    reputation    for 
statesmanship    and    brillant    eloquence,    but    ef- 
fected nothing,  and  withdrew  to  the  practice  of 
his  profession  more  than  ever  convinced  that  the 
worthless    fabric    of   the    confederation    must   be 
swept   away   and   something  better  and  stronger 
put  in  its  place.     .     .     .     Matters  went  rapidly 
from  bad  to  worse.     The  states  were  bankrupt 
and  disintegration  threatened  them.     Internecine 
commercial  regulations  destroyed  prosperity,  and 
riot  and  insurrection  menaced  society."      (Idem.) 

68.  "In  1784,  when  the  Trespass  Act  threw  New 

201 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

York  into  confusion,  Hamilton  had  come  to  be  re- 
garded as  one  of  the  most  powerful  advocates  in 
the  country.  In  the  test  case  which  now  came 
before  the  courts  he  played  a  bold  and  manly 
part.  .  .  .  There  can  be  no  better  proof  of 
his  forensic  ability  than  his  winning  a  verdict  in 
such  a  case  as  this  from  a  hostile  court  that  was 
largely  influenced  by  the  popular  excitement. 
The  decision  nullified  the  Trespass  Act  and  forth- 
with mass  meetings  of  the  people  and  an  extra  ses- 
sion of  the  legislature  condemned  the  action  of 
the  court.  Hamilton  was  roundly  abused  and  his 
conduct  was  attributed  to  unworthy  motives. 
But  he  faced  the  people  boldly  as  he  had  faced 
the  court.  .  .  .  The  more  intelligent  and  re- 
spectable citizens  reluctantly  admitted  that  Ham- 
ilton's arguments  were  unanswerable.  A  club  of 
boon  companions,  .  .  .  gravely  proposed 
that  the  members  of  the  club  pledge  themselves  one 
after  the  other  to  challenge  Hamilton  to  mortal 
combat  until  one  of  them  should  have  the  good 
fortune  to  kill  him!  The  scheme  met  with  gen- 
eral favor,  but  was  defeated.  .  .  .  The  in- 
cident well  illustrates  the  intense  bitterness  of  po- 
litical passion  of  the  time,  and  as  to  Hamilton 
shows  him  in  the  light  of  a  courageous  and  pow- 
erful defender  of  central  government."  (Fiske's 
"Critical  Period  of  American  History.") 

69.  "It  was  when  the  labors  of  the  Convention 

202 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

were  completed  and  laid  before  the  people  that 
Hamilton's  labors  for  the  Constitution  really  be- 
gan. He  conceived  and  started  the  'Federalist,' 
and  wrote  .  .  .  those  famous  essays  which 
riveted  the  attention  of  the  country,  furnished 
the  weapons  of  argument  and  exposition  to  those 
who  thought  'continentally'  in  all  the  states  and 
did  more  than  anything  else  for  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution.  ...  In  a  brilliant  contest, 
Hamilton,  by  argument  rarely  equaled  in  the  his- 
tory of  debate,  either  in  form  or  eloquence,  by 
skillful  management  and  by  wise  delay,  finally  suc- 
ceeded in  converting  enough  votes  and  carried 
ratification  triumphantly.  It  was  a  great  victory, 
and  in  the  Federal  procession  in  New  York  the 
Federal  ship  bore  the  name  of  'Hamilton.'  ."  .  . 
In  April,  1789,  Washington  was  inaugurated. 

He  at  once  placed  Hamilton  at  the  head 
of  it  [the  Treasury  Department].  In  the  five 
years  that  ensued  Hamilton  did  the  work  that  lies 
at  the  foundation  of  our  system  of  administration, 
gave  life  and  meaning  to  the  Constitution,  and  by 
his  policy  developed  two  great  political  parties. 
.  .  .  On  January  14,  1790,  he  sent  to  Con- 
gress the  first  'Report  on  the  Public  Credit.' 

In  that  wonderful  document  and  with  a 
master's  hand  he  reduced  our  confused  finances  to 
order,  provided  for  a  funding  system  and  for  taxes 
to  sustain  it,  and  displayed  a  plan  for  the  assump- 
tion of  the  state  debts.  The  financial  policy  thus 

203 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

set  forth  was  put  into  execution,  and  by  it  our 
credit  was  redeemed,  our  union  cemented,  and  our 
business  and  commercial  prosperity  restored." 
(Appleton's  "Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biogra- 
phy.") 

70.  "After  the  election  of  Jefferson,  Hamilton 
resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession. 
But  he  could  not  separate  himself  entirely  from 
politics.  ...  As  time  wore  on  and  the  breach 
between  Jefferson  and  Burr  widened,  the  latter  re- 
newed his  intrigues  with  the  Federalists,  but 
through  Hamilton's  influence  was  constantly 
thwarted  and  was  finally  beaten  for  the  gover- 
norship of  New  York.  But  he  apparently  de- 
termined to  fix  a  quarrel  upon  his  lifelong  enemy, 
for  Hamilton  had  used  the  severest  language  about 
Burr.  .  .  .  and  it  was  easy  enough  to  bring 
it  home  to  him.  Hamilton  had  no  wish  to  go  out 
with  Burr,  but  he  was  a  fighting  man  and,  more- 
over, he  was  haunted  by  the  belief  that  democracy 
was  going  to  culminate  in  the  horrors  of  the 
French  Revolution,  that  a  strong  man  would  be 
needed,  and  that  society  would  turn  to  him  for 
salvation — a  work  for  which  he  would  be  disqual- 
ified by  the  popular  prejudice  if  he  declined  to 
fight  a  duel.  He  therefore  accepted  the  chal- 
lenge, met  Burr  on  July  11,  1804,  on  the  bank  of 
the  Hudson  at  Weehawken,  and  fell  mortally 
wounded  at  the  first  fire.  His  tragic  fate  called 
204 


forth  a  universal  burst  of  grief  and  drove  Burr 
into  exile  and  conspiracy."  (Appleton's  "Cyclo- 
paedia of  American  Biography.") 

71.  "As  time  has  gone  on  Hamilton's  fame  has 
grown,  and  he  stands  to-day  as  the  most  brilliant 
statesman  we  have  produced.  His  constructive 
mind  and  far  reaching  intellect  are  visible  in  every 
part  of  our  system  of  government,  which  is  the 
best  and  noblest  monument  of  his  genius.  His 
writings  abound  in  ideas  which  there  and  then 
found  their  first  expression,  and  which  he  im- 
pressed upon  our  institutions  until  they  have  be- 
come so  universally  accepted  and  so  very  com- 
monplace that  their  origin  is  unsuspected." 
(Idem.) 

7£.  "The  many-sidedness  of  Franklin's  activ- 
ity was  amazing.  He  founded  the  Philadelphia 
library, — the  first  subscription  library  in  Amer- 
ica,— was  one  of  the  chief  organizers  of  the  edu- 
cational institution  afterwards  known  as  the  Penn- 
sylvania University,  became  deputy  Postmaster- 
General  in  1753,  and  as  such  greatly  improved  the 
postal  system  of  the  Colonies,  and  finally  made  his 
immortal  discoveries  in  electricity."  (World's 
Classics.) 

"From  early  youth  Franklin  was  interested  in 
scientific  studies,  and  his  name  by  and  by  became 
associated  with  a  very  useful  domestic  invention 

205 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

and  also  with  one  of  the  most  remarkable  discov- 
eries of  the  eighteenth  century.  In  1742  he  in- 
vented the  'open  stove,  for  the  better  warming  of 
rooms';  an  invention  that  has  not  yet  fallen  en- 
tirely into  disuse.  Ten  years  later  by  wondrously 
simple  experiments  with  a  kite  he  showed  that 
lightning  is  a  discharge  of  electricity ;  and  in  1753 
he  received  the  Copley  medal  from  the  Royal  so- 
ciety for  this  most  brilliant  and  pregnant  discov- 
ery. ...  In  his  old  days  of  editorial  work 
in  Philadelphia,  with  his  noble  scholarly  habit  of 
putting  every  moment  to  some  good  use,  he  had 
learned  the  French  language,  with  Italian  and 
Spanish  also,  besides  getting  some  knowledge  of 
Latin.  He  was  thus  possessed  of  many  talismans 
for  opening  many  a  treasure  house,  and  among 
all  the  encyclopaedist  philosophers  in  Paris  it 
would  have  been  hard  to  point  to  a  mind  more 
encyclopaedic  than  his  own."  (Idem.) 

73.  "On  the  part  of  the  Americans  the  treaty 
of  1783  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  triumphs  in 
the  whole  history  of  modern  diplomacy.  Had  the 
affair  been  managed  by  men  of  ordinary  ability, 
the  greatest  results  of  the  Revolutionary  War 
would  probably  have  been  lost,  the  new  republic 
would  have  been  cooped  up  between  the  Atlantic 
and  the  Alleghanies,  our  westward  expansion  would 
have  been  impossible  without  further  warfare,  and 
the  formation  of  our  Federal  Union  would  doubt- 
206 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

less  have  been  hindered  or  prevented.  To  the 
grand  triumph  the  varied  talents  of  Franklin, 
Adams  and  Jay  alike,  contributed ;  but  without  the 
tact  of  Franklin  this  probably  could  not  have 
been  accomplished  without  offending  France  in 
such  wise  as  to  spoil  everything."  (Idem.) 

74?.  "The  abilities  of  Franklin  were  so  vast  and 
so  various,  he  touched  human  life  at  so  many 
points,  that  it  would  require  an  elaborate  essay 
to  characterize  him  properly.  He  was  at  once 
philosopher,  statesman,  diplomatist,  discoverer, 
inventor,  philanthropist,  moralist  and  wit,  while 
as  a  writer  of  English  he  was  surpassed  by  few 
of  his  time.  History  presents  few  examples  of  a 
career  starting  from  such  humble  beginnings  a.id 
attaining  to  such  great  and  enduring  splendor. 
The  career  of  Napoleon,  for  example,  as  compared 
with  Franklin's  seems  vulgar  and  trivial.  The 
ceaseless  industry  of  Franklin  throughout  his  long 
life  was  guided  to  an  extraordinary  degree  by  the 
clear  light  of  reason  and  inspired  by  a  warm  and 
enthusiastic  desire  for  the  improvement  of  man- 
kind. He  is  in  many  respects  the  greatest  of 
Americans,  and  one  of  the  greatest  men  whose 
names  are  recorded  in  history."  (Idem.) 

75.  "At  the  first  fire  Hamilton  fell  mortally 
wounded.  But  Burr's  shot  was  more  fatal  to  him- 
self than  to  his  foe ;  he  left  that  'field  of  honor'  a 

207 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

ruined  man.  .  .  .  Though  his  political  pros- 
pects were  now  blasted  and  his  name  execrated, 
his  bold  and  resolute  spirit  did  not  break. 
Early  in  1805  he  turned  his  course  toward  the 
great  West,  then  a  new  world.  .  .  .  His  pur- 
pose seems  to  have  been  to  collect  a  body  of  follow- 
ers and  conquer  Texas — perhaps  Mexico — estab- 
lishing there  a  Republic  which  he  would  head. 
With  this  he  associated  the  hope  that  the  western 
states,  ultimately  falling  away  from  the  Union, 
would  cast  in  their  lot  with  him,  making  New  Or- 
leans the  capital  of  the  new  nation.  ...  It 
was  a  wild  scheme,  if  not  technically  treasonable 
yet  was  so  near  to  it  as  to  make  him  a  public  en- 
emy. Events  had  advanced  rapidly,  and  Burr's 
schemes  were  nearly  ripe  for  execution  when  the 
President,  who  had  not  been  ignorant  of  what  was 
maturing,  issued  a  proclamation  October,  1806, 
denouncing  the  enterprise  and  warning  the  peo- 
ple against  it.  The  project  immediately  col- 
lapsed. Burr  was  arrested  and  conveyed  to  Rich- 
mond, Virginia.  Here  was  held  the  memorable 
trial  for  treason,  lasting  six  months. 
The  jury  returned  a  verdict  of  'not  guilty'  on  the 
indictment  of  treason,  and  some  time  after  the 
prisoner  was  acquitted."  (Idem.) 

76.   "He  stood  among  the  leaders  of  the  bar, 
with  no  rival  but  Alexander  Hamilton.     Obtain- 
ing possession  of  Richmond  Hill,  a  fine  New  York 
208 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

mansion  with  ample  grounds,  he  dispensed  a  lib- 
eral hospitality.  Tallyrand,  Volney  and  Louis 
Philippe  were  among  his  guests.  In  1788  he  was 
appointed  by  Governor  Clinton  the  attorney-gen- 
eral for  the  State  of  New  York,  an  office  he  held 
for  two  years.  He  was  elected  to  the  United 
States  Senate  and  served  for  six  years.  He  was 
almost  chosen  for  the  Presidency  of  the  United 
States,  having  received  the  exact  number  of  elec- 
toral votes  which  Jefferson  received.  But  the 
House  of  Representatives  elected  Jefferson  Presi- 
dent, and  Burr  Vice-President.  .  .  .  After 
Burr's  killing  of  Hamilton  his  career  was  check- 
ered and  disgraceful.  .  .  .  He  soon  sailed 
for  England,  animated  with  new  schemes  and 
hopes.  After  various  ventures  in  that  countiy 
he  was  expelled  as  an  'embarrassing'  person,  and 
went  to  Sweden.  Having  spent  some  time  in  Co- 
penhagen and  various  cities  in  Germany,  he  finally 
reached  Paris.  .  .  .  Here,  kept  under  gov- 
ernment surveillance  and  refused  permission  to  re- 
turn to  the  United  States,  he  was  reduced  to  the 
severest  pecuniary  straits.  Returning  to  Eng- 
land, he  was  obliged  to  remain  there  in  desperate 
extremities  for  a  year  and  a  half.  ...  At 
last  ...  he  reached  Boston,  May, 
1812.  Disguised  under  the  name  of  Arnot, 
as  well  as  with  wig  and  whiskers,  the  return- 
ing exile  entered  the  city  in  the  most  humiliating 
plight." 

209 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

He  finally  managed  to  return  to  New  York, 
open  a  law  office  and  recoup  his  practice. 

"Shunned  by  society,  though  with  a  considerable 
practice,  he  lived  on  for  twenty-three  years. 
In  his  last  days  Burr  was  dependent  on 
the  charity  of  a  Scotch  woman.  ...  In  his 
case  the  finest  gifts  of  nature  and  fortune  were 
poisoned  by  unsound  moral  principles  and  the  ab- 
sence of  all  genuine  convictions.  He  was  a  master 
of  intrigue,  but  to  no  purpose.  He  was  a  re- 
spectable lawyer  and  speaker,  but  lacked  the 
qualities  of  a  statesman.  Dauntless  resolution 
and  cool  self-possession  never  deserted  him.  On 
the  morning  of  his  duel  with  Hamilton  he  was 
found  by  a  friend  in  a  sound  sleep."  (Idem.) 

77.  "By  a  private  article  in  the  treaty  of  St. 
Ildefonso,  signed  October  18,  1800,  Spain  had 
ceded  to  France  the  territory  of  Louisiana — 
meaning,  as  the  reader  must  always  remember, 
not  merely  the  State  now  known  by  that  name, 
but  the  region  north  of  Florida,  west  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  a 
line  drawn  through  the  Sabine,  Red  and  Arkansas 
rivers.  At  home  the  government  was  goaded  by 
constant  appeals  from  the  Western  States  to  se- 
cure an  open  passage  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  for 
their  products.  .  .  .  Jefferson  sent  powers 
to  Livingston,  our  Minister  in  France,  to  whom 
Monroe  was  joined,  and  bade  the  two  to  propose 
210 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

to  the  First  Consul  the  purchase  of  the  island  on 
which  Orleans  stands,  and  the  right  of  passage  to 
the  sea.  The  Commissioners  were  authorized  to 
offer  the  First  Consul  two  and  a  half  million  dol- 
lars. Before  Monroe's  arrival,  however,  Living- 
ston was  met  by  a  proposal  which  astounded  him. 
When  the  journals  announced  that  the 
new  American  envoy  was  on  his  way,  he  [Bona- 
parte] sent  for  Marbois,  his  Minister  of  the 
Treasury,  and  bade  him  meet  the  Commissioners 
immediately  and  offer  to  sell  them  the  whole  re- 
gion at  fifty  million  francs.  .  .  .  Livingston 
was  surprised  at  an  offer  so  extraordinary." 

Marbois  tried  to  get  one  hundred  million  francs, 
but  through  Livingston's  shrewdness  the  purchase 
for  only  a  part  of  which  he  was  authorized  to  pay 
two  and  a  half  millions,  was  closed  at  sixty  mil- 
lion francs. 

"The  United  States  came  into  possession  of  a 
vast  and  to  some  extent  undefined  domain,  con- 
taining a  mixed  free  population  of  eighty-five 
thousand  white  people  and  forty  thousand  negro 
slaves,  for  the  sum  of  fifteen  million  dollars. 
Bonaparte  exclaimed:  'This  accession  of 
territory  strengthens  forever  the  power  of  the 
United  States,  and  I  have  just  given  to  England 
a  maritime  rival  that  will  sooner  or  later  humble 
her  pride.' ' 

78.  "The   President's   hostility   to   the  United 

211 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

States  Bank  .  .  .  had  more  to  do  probably 
than  anything  else  with  his  reelection. 
As  the  Bank  would  soon  ask  for  a  renewal  of  its 
charter  ...  he  called  the  attention  of  Con- 
gress to  the  constitutionality  and  expediency  of 
the  law  creating  it.  It  had  failed,  he  said,  in  es- 
tablishing a  sound  and  uniform  currency,  and  he 
suggested  that  a  national  bank,  founded  upon  the 
credit  and  revenues  of  the  Government,  might  be 
devised  which  would  be  constitutional  and  be  bene- 
ficial to  the  finances  of  the  country.  It  was  the 
beginning  of  a  long  struggle  which  convulsed  the 
country  while  it  lasted.  That  the  final  result 
was  beneficial  was  not  long  doubted  after  the 
party  passion  had  subsided ;  nor  is  it  incredible 
that  the  motives  of  Jackson's  hostility  were  what 
he  professed  they  were.  .  .  .  The  bank  was 
.  .  .  accused  of  using  its  means  and  its  influ- 
ence to  bring  the  question  of  recharter  within  the 
arena  of  politics.  .  .  .  When  the  President 
vetoed  the  bill  [to  renew  the  charter]  there  was 
not  a  two-thirds  .vote  in  the  Senate  to  sustain  its 
previous  action,  and  the  bill  failed. 
Jackson's  argument,  reiterated  in  many  forms, 
was  that  the  bank  was  buying  up  members  of 
Congress ;  ...  he  accused  the  officers  of  the 
bank  of  the  most  flagrant  mismanagement  and 
corrupt  practices,  and  concluded  with  the  an- 
nouncement that  he  had  fully  determined  on  the 
removal  [of  the  national  funds  from  the  bank] 
212 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

and    should    assume    the    entire    responsibility." 
(Scribner's  "History  of  the  United  States.") 

79.  "It  has  been  imagined  that  General  Jackson 
is  bent  on  establishing  a  dictatorship  in  America, 
on  introducing  a  military  spirit,  and  on  giving 
a  degree  of  influence  to  the  central  authority 
which  cannot  but  be  dangerous  to  provincial  lib- 
erties. .  .  .  Far  from  wishing  to  extend  the 
Federal  power,  the  President  belongs  to  the  party 
which  is  desirous  of  limiting  that  power  to  the 
bare  and  precise  letter  of  the  Constitution ; 
.  .  .  far  from  standing  forth  as  the  champion 
of  centralization,  General  Jackson  is  the  agent  of 
all  the  jealousies  of  the  states.  .  .  .  Gen- 
eral Jackson  is  the  slave  of  the  majority;  he 
yields  to  its  propensities,  its  wishes  and  demands ; 
say,  rather,  that  he  anticipates  and  forestalls 
them.  Whenever  the  governments  of  the  states 
come  into  collision  with  that  of  the  Union,  the 
President  is  generally  the  first  to  question  his 
own  rights.  .  .  .  Not  indeed  that  he  is  nat- 
urally weak  or  hostile  to  the  Union ;  for  when  the 
majority  decided  against  the  claims  of  the  par- 
tisans of  nullification,  he  put  himself  at  its  head, 
asserted  the  doctrines  which  the  Nation  held 
distinctly  and  energetically,  and  was  the  first  to 
recommend  forcible  measures ;  but  General  Jack- 
son appears  to  me,  if  I  may  use  the  American  ex- 
pression, to  be  a  Federalist  by  taste,  and  a  Re- 

213 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

publican    by     calculation."       (De     Tocqueville's 
"Democracy  in  America.") 

80.  "John  H.  Eaton,  Secretary  of  War,  had 
married    a    Mrs.    Timberlake,    who,    it    was    said 

was  of  bad  reputation  before  Eaton  mar- 
ried her.  The  families  of  other  members  of  the 
government,  as  well  as  those  of  the  Foreign  Min- 
ister and  of  the  better  class  of  people  generally 
in  Washington,  refused  to  recognize  or  admit  her 
to  their  houses.  There  was  a  touch  of  chivalry  in 
the  impetuosity  and  passion  with  which  Jackson 
came  to  the  defence  of  this  woman. 
Jackson  was  himself  undoubtedly  as  chaste  as  a 
virtuous  woman ;  but  it  was,  nevertheless,  through 
the  overbearing  self  will  of  this  man  that  the  sim- 
plicity and  purity  of  a  republican  administration 
was  for  the  first  time  and  so  far  for  the  last  time, 
smirched  with  the  scandalous  intrigues  that  in 
earlier  times  distinguished  the  courts  of  mon- 
archs."  (Scribner's  "History  of  the  United 
States.") 

81.  "So  beneficent  and  so  glorious  has  been  the 
administration  of  this  President  that  where  to  be- 
gin and  where  to  end  in  the  enumeration  of  great 
measures  would  be  the  embarrassment  of  him  who 
has  his  eulogy  to  make.     He  came  into  office  the 
first  of  generals,  he  goes  out  the  first  of  states- 
men.    His  civil  competitors  have  shared  the  fate 

214 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

of  his  military  opponents.  .  .  .  Repulsed; 
driven  back;  discomfited;  crushed;  has  been  the 
fate  of  all  assailants  foreign,  domestic,  civil  and 
military.  .  .  .  Great  is  the  influence,  great 
is  the  power,  greater  than  any  man  ever  before 
possessed  in  America,  which  he  has  acquired  over 
the  public  mind.  And  how  has  he  acquired  it? 
Not  by  the  arts  of  intrigue,  or  the  juggling  tricks 
of  diplomacy ;  not  by  undermining  rivals  or  sacri- 
ficing public  interests  for  the  gratification  of 
classes  or  individuals.  But  he  has  acquired  it 
first  by  the  exercise  of  an  intuitive  sagacity, 
which  has  always  enabled  him  to  adopt 
the  right  remedy  at  the  right  time  and  to  con- 
quer soonest  when  the  man  of  forms  and  office 
thought  him  near  to  ruin  and  despair;  next,  by 
moral  courage  which  knew  no  fear  when  the  pub- 
lic good  beckoned  him  to  go  on ;  last  and  chiefest, 
he  has  acquired  it  by  an  open  honesty  of  purpose 
which  knew  no  concealments,  by  straightforward- 
ness of  action  which  disdained  the  forms  of  office 
and  the  arts  of  intrigue ;  by  a  disinterestedness 
of  motives,  ...  a  devotedness  of  patriotism, 
which  staked  everything  personal  on  the  issue  of 
every  measure  which  the  public  welfare  required 
him  to  adopt. 

"Great  has  been  the  opposition  to  President 
Jackson's  administration ;  greater,  perhaps,  than 
ever  has  been  exhibited  against  any  government 
short  of  actual  insurrection  and  forcible  iresist- 

215 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

ance.  Revolution  has  been  proclaimed,  and  every- 
thing has  been  done  that  could  be  expected  to 
produce  revolution.  The  country  has  been 
alarmed,  agitated,  convulsed.  From  the  Senate 
Chamber  to  the  village  barroom,  from  one  end  of 
the  continent  to  the  other,  denunciation,  agitation, 
excitement,  has  been  the  order  of  the  day.  For 
eight  years  the  President  of  this  republic  has 
stood  upon  a  volcano  vomiting  fire  and  flames 
upon  him  and  threatening  the  country  itself  with 
ruin  and  dissolution  if  the  people  did  not  expel  the 
'usurper,'  'despot'  and  'tyrant,'  as  he  was  called, 
from  the  high  place  to  which  the  suffrages  of  mil- 
lions of  freemen  elevated  him."  (From  speech  of 
Senator  T.  H.  Benton,  on  "The  Expunging  Res- 
olution.") 

82.  "The  confidential  message  of  President 
Madison  on  June  first  and  the  report  thereon  by 
the  House  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations 
through  its  chairman,  Mr.  Calhoun,  set  forth  at 
length  the  reasons  for  a  declaration  of  war 
against  Great  Britain.  The  modern  reader  of 
these  documents  will  look  in  vain  in  either  of  them 
for  any  evidence  of  unselfish  patriotism  or  of  the 
grasp  of  the  statesman ;  but  he  will  be  amazed  at 
the  boldness  of  the  political  partisan.  There  had 
been  reasons  enough  for  more  than  fifteen  years 
for  going  to  war  with  more  than  one  nation,  pro- 
vided war  was  the  only  way  in  which  the  United 
216 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

States  could  protect  her  rights  and  her  interests. 
Mr.  Madison  in  his  message  and  Mr.  Cal- 
houn  in  his  report,  when  both  papers  were 
stripped  of  specious  argument,  really  presented 
the  determination  of  a  war  with  England  as  a 
party  measure."  (Idem.) 

83.  "Congress  sat  with  closed  door  to  consider 
the     confidential     message.      ...     A     protest 
against  the   war,  in  the   form   of  an  address   to 
their    constituents,    was    drawn    up    by    Josiah 
Quincy  of  Massachusetts,  and  signed  by  thirty- 
eight  members  of  the  House.     They  complained 
of  the  tyranny  of  the  majority  in  passing  in  se- 
cret session  a  bill  of  so  much  importance  without 
permitting  it  to  be  debated;  they  denounced  the 
war  as  a  pretext  to  give  aid  to  Napoleon  against 
England;     .     .     .     they  warned  their   country- 
men of  the  madness  of  that  party  policy  which 
disregarded  the  danger  of  the  dissolution  of  the 
Union,  when  government  was  still  'in  no  small  de- 
gree  experimental,'   etc.     .     .     .     Intense  oppo- 
sition  to   the   war,   which   showed   itself   in  mass 
meetings,  in  pulpits,  in  newspapers  and  in  pam- 
phlets, was  met,  on  the  other  hand,  by  support 
no  less  earnest."      (Idem.) 

84.  "Before  the  close  of  the  year  the  brilliant 
exploits  of  the  little  American  navy  dispelled  the 

217 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

brooding  gloom  that  hung  over  the  people,  and 
filled  them  with  joy  and  confidence." 

"These  naval  victories  astounded  the  British 
public.  The  lion  was  bearded  in  his  den.  The 
claims  of  Great  Britain  to  the  mastery  of  the  seas 
were  vehemently  and  practically  disputed. 
The  British  newspapers  raved  and  uttered  oppro- 
brious epithets.  A  leading  London  journal  pet- 
ulantly and  vulgarly  gave  vent  to  its  sentiments 
by  expressing  an  apprehension  that  England 
might  be  stripped  of  her  maritime  supremacy,  by 
'a  piece  of  striped  bunting  flying  at  the  mast 
heads  of  a  few  fir-built  frigates,  manned  by  a 
handful  of  bastards  and  cowards.'  .  .  .  The 
news  of  Perry's  victory  on  Lake  Erie  startled  the 
British  public,  and  strange  confessions  of  weak- 
ness were  made  in  the  English  and  provincial 
newspapers."  (Idem.) 

85.  "The  government  of  the  United  States  was 
only  nominally  independent.  Socially  and  com- 
mercially the  United  States  tacitly  acknowledged 
their  dependence  on  Europe  and  especially  upon 
England,  and  the  latter  was  rapidly  acquiring  a 
dangerous  interest  and  influence  in  American  af- 
fairs when  the  war  broke  out.  The  war  begun  in 
1775  was  only  the  first  great  step  towards  inde- 
pendence ;  the  war  begun  in  1812  first  thoroughly 
accomplished  the  independence  of  the  United 
States.  Franklin  once  heard  a  person  speaking 
218 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

of  the  Revolution  as  the  war  of  independence  and 
reproved  him,  saying:  'Sir,  you  mean  the  Rev- 
olution ;  the  war  of  independence  is  yet  to  come. 
It  was  a  war  for  independence,  but  not  of  inde- 
pendence.' '  (Harper's  "Cyclopaedia  of  United 
States  History.") 

86.  "It  was  a  natural  and  easy  step  to  the 
Hartford  Convention.  .  .  .  The  war  which 
had  proved  disastrous  and,  till  recently, — except 
upon  the  sea — uniformly  disgraceful  to  the  Amer- 
ican arms,  had  fallen  with  peculiar  severity  on 
New  England.  Most  of  her  people  believed  that 
bad  as  the  war  was,  it  was  still  more  badly  con- 
ducted— that  the  Administration  was  imbecile 
and  unprincipled.  .  .  .  The  Convention  was 
called  by  a  resolution  of  the  Massachusetts  Leg- 
islature passed  October,  181A  .  .  .  The  ul- 
terior object  was  to  'enquire  whether  the  inter- 
ests of  these  states  demand  that  persevering  en- 
deavors be  used  by  each  of  them  to  procure  such 
amendments  to  be  effected  in  the  National  consti- 
tution as  may  secure  to  them  equal  advantage, 
etc.  .  .  .  This  only  meant  ...  a 
proposition  to  amend  the  Constitution,  if  possi- 
ble, with  the  assent  of  all  the  states ;  but,  if  im- 
possible, then  the  formation  and  adoption  of  a 
new  constitution  by  so  many  of  the  states  as 
agreed  upon  the  necessity.  In  the  last  analysis, 
this  was  disunion  as  the  corollary  of  reconstruc- 

219 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

tion."      (Scribner's     "History     of     the     United 
States.") 

87.  "Attracted  by  fertility  of  soil  and  advan- 
tages for  cattle  raising,  large  numbers  of  Amer- 
icans had  long  been  emigrating  to  Texas.  By 
18SO  they  probably  comprised  a  majority  of  the 
population.  March  2,  1836,  Texas  declared  its 
independence  of  Mexico,  and  on  April  tenth  of 
that  year  fought  in  defence  of  the  same  the  de- 
cisive battle  of  San  Jacinto.  Here  Houston 
gained  a  complete  victory  over  Santa  Anna,  the 
Mexican  president,  captured  him,  and  extorted 
his  signature  to  a  treaty,  acknowledging  Texan 
independence.  This,  however,  as  having  been 
forced,  the  Mexican  government  refused  to  ratify. 

"Not  only  did  the  Texans  almost  to  a  man 
wish  annexation  to  our  Union,  but  the  dominant 
wing  of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  Union  itself 
was  bent  upon  the  same,  forcing  a  demand  for 
this  into  the  National  platform  in  184*0.  .  .  . 
Calhoun,  Tyler's  Secretary  of  State,  more  influ- 
ential than  any  other  man  in  bringing  it  about, 
therefore  now  advocated  it  more  zealously  than 
ever. 

"Calhoun's  purpose  in  this  was  to  balance  the 
immense  growth  of  the  North  by  adding  to 
Southern  territory  Texas  which  would,  of  course, 
become  a  slave  state  and  perhaps  in  time  make 
several  states.  As  the  war  progressed,  he  grew 
220 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

moderate  out  of  fear  that  the  South's  show  of 
territorial  greed  would  give  the  North  just  ex- 
cuse for  sectional  measures."  (Andrews'  "His- 
tory of  the  United  States.") 

88.  "By  the  Constitution  of  Mexico  slavery 
was  prohibited  in  Texas ;  that  alone  was  suffi- 
cient reason  why  the  South  should  wish  to  control 
it.  Separation  was  the  first  step  to  be  taken ;  the 
rest  would  follow.  .  .  .  General  Samuel 
Houston,  a  Tennessean  and  a  friend  of  the  Presi- 
dent's, .  .  .  went  to  Mexico,  ostensibly  as 
an  emigrant,  actually  as  a  revolutionist.  All  this 
was  an  open  secret  hardly  disguised,  never  seri- 
ously denied.  .  .  .  Adams  in  his  diary  says 
that  'Jackson  was  so  sharp  set  for  Texas  that 
from  the  first  year  of  his  administration  he  set 
his  double  engines  to  the  work  of  negotiating  to 
buy  Texas  with  one  hand  and  instigating  the  peo- 
ple of  that  province  to  revolt  against  Mexico  with 
the  other.  Houston  was  his  agent  for  rebellion, 
and  Anthony  Butler,  a  Mississippi  land-jobber  in 
Texas,  for  the  purchase.  Butler  kept  him  five 
years  on  the  tenter-hooks  of  expectation,  nego- 
tiating, wheedling,  promising,  and  finally  boast- 
ing that  he  had  secured  the  bargain  by  bribing  a 
priest  with  half  a  million  dollars.'  That  method 
of  negotiation,  however,  Jackson  absolutely  for- 
bade. The  priest  was  to  compass  his  end  by  the 
use  of  influence — precisely  how  can  only  be  con- 

221 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

jectured — but  he  was  the  father-confessor  of  the 
sister-in-law  of  Santa  Anna,  the  Mexican  Presi- 
dent." (Scribner's  "History  of  the  United 
States.") 

89.  "Slavery  was  in  the  nature  of  the  case  al- 
ways aggressive.  Its  contest  was  with  the  laws 
of  the  universe;  the  very  stars  in  their  courses 
were  against  it.  ...  To  be  passive  was  to 
perish ;  it  could  only  live  by  continual  conquest  in 
the  field  of  politics.  .  .  .  Slavery  had  become 
irresistible  by  the  force  of  centralization  of  the 
Federal  government  through  the  power  conferred 
by  the  constitution  upon  slaveholders. 

"  'Domestic  slavery  instead  of  being  an  evil,  is 
the  cornerstone  of  our  republican  edifice,'  said 
Governor  Duff  of  South  Carolina.  This  was  the 
Southern  theory  of  the  Republic — not  that  it  was 
a  popular  government,  but  a  government  in  which 
the  slaveholders  were  the  ordained  rulers.  They 
assumed  to  be  a  privileged  aristocracy. 
It  was  intended  that  the  supremacy  and  perpetu- 
ation of  the  order  should  be  the  fundamental 
principle  of  the  government,  and  the  moment  the 
Constitution  was  perverted  from  that  purpose 
then,  from  that  moment,  the  allegiance  of  the  or- 
der ceased.  .  .  .  Large  rewards  were  offered 
in  some  of  the  slave  holding  states  for  the  appre- 
hension of  several  of  the  leading  Abolitionists. 
The  Legislature  passed  a  law  appropriating  five 
222 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

thousand  dollars  to  be  paid  to  any  person  who 
should  arrest,  bring  to  trial  and  prosecute  to  con- 
viction under  the  laws  of  the  state  the  editor  of 
The  Liberator  (William  Lloyd  Garrison). 
.  .  .  At  a  public  meeting  in  Mississippi  it  was 
resolved  that  whoever  should  circulate  anti-slav- 
ery literature  'was  justly  worthy  in  the  sight  of 
God  and  man  of  immediate  death,'  and  that  such 
would  be  the  penalty  in  any  part  of  the  state.  In 
Tennessee  a  traveling  agent  of  the  Bible  Society 
in  whose  possession  was  found  some  anti-slavery 
publications,  not  for  sale  but  for  his  own  use,  was 
sentenced  ...  to  be  punished  with  thirty 
lashes  upon  his  bare  back.  ...  In  Wash- 
ington Dr.  Reuben  Crandall,  who  received  some 
packages,  the  wrappers  of  which  happened  to  be 
anti-slavery  newspapers,  was  thrown  into  prison 
and  kept  there  for  nine  months  before  he  was  per- 
mitted to  answer  to  an  indictment  for  publishing 
malicious  and  wicked  literature  with  an  intent  to 
excite  slaves  to  insurrections."  (Idem.) 

90.  "Garrison's  startling  proposition  was  that 
all  this  involved  a  stupendous  lie ;  that  there  was 
no  more  necessity  for  the  continuance  of  murder 
or  robbery  or  dishonesty,  for  wrong  or  outrage 
of  any  kind  that  one  man  might  commit  upon  an- 
other ;  that  on  the  contrary  it  must  be  brought  to 
an  immediate  end ;  that  the  slave  holder  must  stop 
holding  slaves,  as  the  murderer  should  cease  to 

223 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

kill,  etc.  .  .  .  The  slaveholders  heard  pres- 
ently of  this  new  doctrine  with  consternation. 
Slavery  to  them  was  wealth  and  power,  social  su- 
premacy and  supremacy  in  the  state.  .  .  .  There 
came  an  end  to  this  tranquillity  and  content- 
ment in  the  light  of  this  new  doctrine."  (Idem.) 
"Nat  Turner,  insurgent;  born  of  negro  slave 
parents  in  Virginia  about  1800.  In  1831  he  con- 
fided to  six  men  that  in  his  belief  he  had  been 
chosen  by  God  to  lead  the  slaves  to  liberty,  and 
laid  out  a  plan  to  kill  every  white  person  and  in- 
cite the  whole  slave  population  to  insurrection. 
His  party  started  out  from  Turner's  own  house, 
where  his  master  was  killed,  and  then  a  movement 
was  made  against  neighboring  plantations  where 
other  slaves  joined.  In  forty-eight  hours  the 
party  numbered  sixty  and  had  killed  fifty-five 
white  persons.  Turner  and  his  men  were  finally 
captured  in  Jerusalem,  Virginia,  where  Turner 
was  hanged.  Many  of  the  others  were  also 
hanged."  (Harper's  "Cyclopaedia  of  United 
States  History.") 

91.  Wendell  Phillips,  orator  and  reformer,  born 
in  Boston,  Massachusetts,  November  29,  1811. 
At  the  time  of  his  graduation  from  Harvard  Col- 
lege the  agitation  of  the  slavery  question  was  vio- 
lent and  widespread,  and  in  1836  Mr.  Phillips 
joined  the  Abolitionists.  He  conceived  it  such  a 
wrong  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
224 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

in  sanctioning  slavery  that  he  could  not  consist- 
ently act  under  his  attorney's  oath  to  that  Con- 
stitution and  he  abandoned  his  profession.  From 
that  time  till  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  in 
1863  he  did  not  cease  to  lift  up  his  voice  against 
the  system  of  slavery  and  against  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States.  .  .  .  Mr.  Phillips 
was  an  eloquent,  logical  and  effective  speaker. 
He  died  in  Boston  in  1884. 

9£.  "Atherton  Gag,  the  name  applied  to  a  res- 
olution introduced  into  the  National  House  of 
Representatives  by  Charles  G.  Atherton  of  New 
Hampshire,  providing  that  all  petitions  and  pa- 
pers relating  to  the  subject  of  slavery  should  be 
'laid  on  the  table  without  being  debated,  printed 
or  referred.'  The  resolution,  which  was  designed 
to  prevent  discussion  of  the  slavery  question,  was 
passed  December  11,  1838,  and  was  rescinded  in 
1845."  (Idem.) 

93.  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy,  abolitionist,  born  in  Al- 
bion, Maine,  180&,  died  in  Alton,  Illinois,  Novem- 
ber 7,  1837. 

"In  1829  he  became  editor  of  a  paper,  in  which 
he  advocated  the  claims  of  Henry  Clay  for  the 
Presidency.  Meeting  with  a  change  in  religious 
views,  he  was  licensed  to  preach  on  April  18, 
1833.  On  his  return  to  St.  Louis  he  established 
a  religious  paper  called  the  Observer,  in  which  he 

225 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

reprobated  slavery.  Repeated  threats  of  mob 
violence  impelled  him  to  remove  his  paper  in  July, 
1836,  to  Al  on,  Illinois.  His  press  was  destroyed 
by  mobs  three 'times  within  the  year,  yet  he  pro- 
cured a  fourth  one  and  was  engaged  in  setting  it 
up  when  a  mob,  composed  mostly  of  Missourians, 
again  attacked  the  office.  With  his  friends  he 
defended  the  building  and  one  of  his  assailants 
was  killed.  After  the  attacking  party  had  ap- 
parently withdrawn  Mr.  Lovejoy  opened  the 
door,  when  he  was  instantly  pierced  by  five  bul- 
lets and  died  in  a  few  minutes."  (Appleton's 
"Cyclopasdia  of  American  Biography.") 

It  was  at  the  meeting  in  Fanueil  Hall,  Boston, 
to  protest  against  this  murder  that  Wendell  Phil- 
lips leaped  into  sudden  and  lifelong  fame. 

94.  "John  Brown,  abolitionist,  born  in  Tor- 
rington,  Connecticut,  May  9,  1800 ;  hanged  in 
Charlestown,  Virginia,  December  £,  1859,  was  a 
descendant  of  Peter  Brown  of  the  Mayflower. 
His  grandfather  was  a  soldier  of  the  Revolution. 
.  When  John  was  five  years  of  age  his 
father  moved  to  Ohio,  .  .  .  and  in  1855  mi- 
grated to  Kansas,  where  as  an  anti-slavery  agi- 
tator he  took  an  active  part  against  the  pro- 
slavery  party.  .  .  .  Devout,  moral,  coura- 
geous, and  intensely  earnest,  he  sought  to  be  an  in- 
strument for  the  abolition  of  African  slavery  from 
the  Republic.  The  idea  that  he  might  become  a 
226 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

liberator  was  conceived  as  early  as  1839.  In 
May,  1859,  he  made  his  first  movement  to  liber- 
ate the  slaves  in  Virginia,  which  ended  so  disas- 
trously to  himself  at  Harper's  Ferry."  (Har- 
per's "Cyclopaedia  of  United  States  History.") 

95.  "In  estimating  Mr.  Calhoun's  position  ab- 
solutely and  relatively,  he  is  liable  to  a  less  favor- 
able verdict  than  his  merits  demand. 
His  fame  results  from  the  possession  of  an  ardent, 
sincere  and  intense  soul  which  gave  impulse  and 
motive  to  a  mind  endowed  with  extraordinary 
analytic  force,  acute  and  subtle  in  its  insight,  fer- 
tile in  suggestion,  careful,  laborious  and  profound 
in  research,  full  of  resources  and  comprehensive 
in  its  deduction  of  general  principles.  He  had  a 
large  imagination,  though  he  had  little  fancy. 

The  estimate  we  have  placed  upon  the 
genius  of  this  remarkable  man  is  confirmed  by  the 
touching  tribute  of  his  rivals  at  the  time  of  his 
death.  Henry  Clay  .  .  .  said:  'He  pos- 
sessed an  elevated  genius  of  the  highest  order.' 

Daniel  Webster,  his  chief  competitor  in 
Constitutional  debate,  said:  'He  is  a  man  of 
undoubted  genius  and  commanding  talent.  All 
the  country  and  all  the  world  admit  that. 
I  think  there  is  not  one  of  us  .  .  .  when  he 
last  addressed  us  from  his  seat  in  the  Senate, 

who  did  not  feel  that  we  might  imagine 
that  we  saw  before  us  a  Senator  of  Rome  when 

227 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

Rome  survived.  .  .  .  I  do  not  believe  he  had 
a  selfish  motive  or  a  selfish  feeling.' 
John  Stuart  Mill  speaks  of  the  great  ability  of 
his  posthumous  work  and  of  its  author  as  'a  man 
who  displayed  powers  as  a  speculative  political 
thinker  superior  to  any  who  has  appeared  in 
American  politics  since  the  author  of  The  Feder- 
alist." (Appleton's  "Cyclopaedia  of  American 
Biography.") 

96.  "He  condemned  what  he  deemed  usurpation 
and  denounced  the  influence  of  [Federal]  patron- 
age as  tending  to  the  organization  of  parties  upon 
the   principle   of   'the    cohesive   power   of    public 
plunder.'     He  claimed  to  belong  to  neither  party, 
but  to  lead  the  band  of  'state  rights'  men,  whose 
course  was  directed  by  principle  and  not  by  the 
motives  of  party  triumph  or  personal  ambition." 
(Idem. ) 

97.  "After  making  all  allowances  it  is  highly 
probable  that  Webster  when  he  made  that  speech 
in  reply  to  Hayne  was,  then  and  there,  the  great- 
est of  all  orators,  living  or  dead.     That  speech 
was  not  the  mere  effort  of  the  moment ;  it  was  the 
sum  and  substance  of  his  whole  moral  nature,  in- 
tellectual  and  political  life,  gathered  up  into  a 
thunderbolt    of   eloquence   and  launched   at   once 
into  human  history.     That  speech  was  his  creed, 
his    experience,    his    aspiration,    his    work — in    a 

228 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

word,  it  was  himself.  After  reading  that,  all  else 
that  Webster  spoke  reads  like  an  echo,  a  rem- 
iniscence. .  .  .  The  hour  and  the  man  had 
met,  and  were  glorified  together."  ("World's 
Classics.") 

98.  "When  Texas  asked  for  admission  during 
Van  Buren's  administration,  and  the  President 
declined,  it  killed  him  politically.  Mr.  Webster's 
unwillingness  to  abet  it  as  Tyler's  Secretary  of 
State  caused  his  removal  from  the  Cabinet. 
Had  Mr.  Webster's  public  career  come 
to  an  end  then  and  there,  his  memory  would  have 
been  revered  for  devotion  to  principle."  (Scrib- 
ner's  "History  of  the  United  States.") 

"President  Taylor's  death  July  9, 1850  .  .  . 
was  most  unfortunate.  He  was  known  not  to 
favor  the  pro-slavery  aggression  which,  in  spite 
of  Clay's  personal  leaning  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion, the  'Omnibus  Bill'  included.  Mr.  Fillmore, 
as  also  Mr.  Websttr  whom  he  made  his  Secre- 
tary of  State,  nervous  with  fear  of  an  anti-slav- 
ery reputation,  went  fully  Clay's  length.  The 
debate  on  this  compromise  of  1850  was  the  occa- 
sion when  Webster  deserted  the  free-soil  princi- 
ples which  were  now  dominant  in  New  England. 
His  celebrated  speech  March  seventh  marked  the 
crisis  of  his  life.  He  argued  that  the  proviso 
was  not  needed  to  prevent  slavery  in  the  newly 
gotten  district,  while  its  passage  would  be  a  wan- 

229 


ton  provocation  to  the  South.  From  this  mo- 
ment Massachusetts  dropped  him.  When  she 
next  elected  a  Senator,  it  was  Charles  Sumner 
.  .  .  who  went  to  Congress  pledged  to  fight 
slavery  to  death."  (Andrews'  "History  of  the 
United  States.") 

99.  "Clay  was  unquestionably  one  of  the  great- 
est orators  that  America  ever  produced;  a  man 
of  incorruptible  personal  integrity,  of  very  great 
natural  ability,  but  little  study,  of  free  and  con- 
vivial habits,  of  singularly  winning  address  and 
manners ;  not  a  cautious  and  safe  political  leader, 
but  a  splendid  party  chief,  idolized  by  his  follow- 
ers."     (Appleton's     "Cyclopaedia     of     American 
Biography.") 

100.  "He   was    actuated  by   a  lofty   national 
spirit,  proud  of  his  country  and  ardently  devoted 
to  the  Union.     It  was  mainly  his  anxiety  to  keep 
the  Union  intact  that  inspired  his  disposition  to 
compromise  contested  questions.     He  had  in  his 
last  hours  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  his  last  great 
work,  the  compromise  of  1850,  accepted  as  a  final 
settlement  of  the  slavery  question  by  the  national 
conventions  of  both  parties.     But  only  two  years 
after  his  death  it  became  evident  that  the  com- 
promise had  settled  nothing.     The  struggle  about 
slavery  broke  out  anew  and  brought  forth  a  civil 
war,  the  calamity  that  Clay  had  been  most  anxious 

230 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

to  prevent,  leading  to  general  emancipation  which 
Clay  would  have  been  glad  to  see  peaceably  ac- 
complished." (Idem.) 

101.  "When  Missouri  presented  herself  with  a 
state  constitution,  not  only  recognizing  slavery, 
but  also  making  it  the  duty  of  the  legislature  to 
pass  such  laws  as  would  be  necessary  to  prevent 
free  negroes  or  mulattoes  from  coming  into  the 
state,  .  .  .  the  House  of  Representatives 
refused  to  admit  Missouri  as  a  state  with  such  a 
constitution.  On  Clay's  motion  .  .  .  that 
the  state  should  never  make  any  laws  to  prevent 
from  settling  within  its  boundaries  any  descrip- 
tion of  persons  who  then  or  thereafter  might  be- 
come citizens,  .  .  .  the  resolution  was 
adopted.  This  was  Clay's  part  of  the  Missouri 
compromise,  and  he  received  general  praise  as 
'the  great  pacificator.'  ...  In  1832  a  state 
convention  in  South  Carolina  passed  an  ordinance 
nullifying  the  tariff  laws  of  1828  and  1832. 
President  Jackson  issued  a  proclamation  against 
the  nullifiers  which  the  governor  of  South  Carolina 
answered  with  a  counter-proclamation. 
Clay  introduced  a  bill  in  behalf  of  Union  and 
Peace,  being  a  compromise  which  provided  for  a 
gradual  reduction  of  the  tariff  until  1842,  when 
it  should  be  reduced  to  a  horizontal  rate  of  twenty 
per  cent.  This  bill  was  accepted  by  the  nullifi- 
ers, .  .  .  and  Clay  was  again  proclaimed  as 

231 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

'the  great  pacificator.'  .  .  .  Without  wait- 
ing for  an  enabling  act  the  inhabitants  of  Cali- 
fornia .  .  .  had  framed  a  constitution  by 
which  slavery  was  prohibited  and  applied  to  Con- 
gress for  admission  as  a  state.  .  .  .  Lead- 
ing Southern  men  threatened  a  dissolution  of  the 
Union  unless  slavery  were  admitted  into  the  ter- 
ritories acquired  from  Mexico.  On  January  24, 
1850,  Clay  brought  forth  in  the  Senate  'a  com- 
prehensive scheme  of  compromise,'  which  he  em- 
bodied in  three  bills,  one  of  which,  on  account  of 
its  comprehensiveness,  was  called  the  'omnibus 
bill.'  .  .  .  This  was  the  compromise  of 
1850."  (Idem.) 

This  compromise  gave  Clay  for  the  third  time 
the  title  of  "the  great  pacificator." 

102.  "Clay  made  speeches  on  internal  improve- 
ments, advocating  a  liberal  construction  of  con- 
stitutional powers  .  .  .  and  in  favor  of  a 
tariff  law,  which  became  known  as  the  tariff  of 
1824,  giving  his  policy  of  protection  and  internal 
improvements  the  name  of  'the  American  sys- 
tem.' "  (Appleton's  "Cyclopaedia  of  American 
Biography.") 

"Relief  came  at  last  with  the  enactment  of  the 
tariff  of  1824,  to  the  support  of  which  leading 
men  in  both  parties  patriotically  united  for  the 
common  good.  .  .  .  The  cooperation  of  these 
eminent  men  is  a  great  historic  tribute  to  the  ne- 
232 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

cessity  and  value  of  protection.  Plenty  and 
prosperity  followed  as  if  by  magic,  the  legislation 
to  which  they  gave  their  support.  We  have  their 
concurrent  testimony  that  the  seven  years  pre- 
ceding the  enactment  of  the  protective  tariff  of 
1824*  were  the  most  discouraging  which  the  young 
Republic  in  its  brief  life  had  encountered,  and 
that  the  seven  years  which  followed  its  enactment 
were  beyond  precedent  the  most  prosperous  and 
happy."  (From  Elaine's  "Reply  to  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's Argument  for  Free  Trade.") 

103.  "During  his  retirement  (in  1842)  he  vis- 
ited   different    parts    of    the    country,    delivering 
speeches  in  some  of  which  he  pronounced  himself 
in  favor  not  of  a  'high  tariff,'  but  of  a  revenue 
tariff  with   incidental  protection,   repeatedly   af- 
firming that  the  protective  system  had  been  orig- 
inally designed  only  as  a  temporary  arrangement 
to  be  maintained  until  the  infant  industries  should 
have  gained  sufficient  strength  to  sustain  compe- 
tition with  foreign  markets  and  manufacturers." 
(Appleton's     "Cyclopaedia    of    American     Biog- 
raphy.") 

104.  "Sumner's  greatest  claim  to  renown  lay  in 
the  fact  that  he  raised  the  question  of  slavery  out 
of  the  arena  of  practical  politics  into  the  loftier 
domain  of  morals.     His  treatment  of  the  subject 
appealed  to  men's  consciences  and  affections;  it 

233 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

struck  the  deep  chord  of  religious  feeling  in  the 
country.  He  abandoned  the  retirement  of  the 
scholar  and  the  student  which  he  loved  so  well,  to 
go  forth  and  do  the  work  which  he  seemed  to  have 
believed  Providence  intended  him  to  perform." 
("World's  Classics.") 

105.  "While  averse  to  politics  he  was  roused 
to  action  by  the  threatened  extension  of  slavery 
over  new  territories.     Thus  it  came  about  that  he 
was  nominated  by  the  Free-Soil  party  for  Con- 
gress in  1848,  but  defeated  only  to  be  successful 
in    1851    for  the   National   Senate,   in  which  he 
sat  till  his  death.     As  the   sole  member  of  the 
Senate  who  stood  out  unflinchingly  against  slavery, 
he  incurred  the  enmity  of  the  Southern  party  by 
his  unbridled  invective ;  and  in  1856  was  assaulted 
in   the   Senate   chamber   by   Preston   S.    Brooks, 
member  of  Congress  from  South  Carolina.     The 
injuries  he  received  from  this  assault,  and  from 
which  he  never  seemed  to  have  thoroughly  recov- 
ered,  were  severe   enough   to  have   incapacitated 
him  for  his  senatorial  duties  for  more  than  three 
years."     (Idem.) 

106.  "With  his  multifarious  learning  he  united 
a  simplicity  of  mind  which  was  after  all  the  strong 
support  of  an  invincible  purpose,  and  his  life  was 
crowned  by  the  only  success  he  ever  seems  to  have 
coveted,  and  that  was  the  success  of  the  cause 

234 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

that  gave  freedom  to  the  negro  slave."     (Idem.) 

107.  "He  introduced  (in  187&)   an  unpopular 
bill  which  drew  from  the  Massachusetts  legislature 
in  1873  a  vote  of  censure.     It  was  to  remove  from 
the  regimental  colors  of  the  army  and  from  the 
army  registei    the  names   of  battles  won  by  the 
Union   in   the   Civil  War.     The  vote   of  censure 
was  rescinded  in  1874."     (Harper's  "Cyclopaedic 
History  of  the  United  States.") 

Mr.  Schurz  represents  him  as  brooding  and 
mourning  over  this  event,  and  says :  "Oh,  those 
were  evil  days  that  winter,  days  sad  and  dark, 
when  he  sat  there  in  that  lonesome  chamber,  un- 
able to  leave  it,  the  world  moving  round  him  and 
in  it  so  much  that  was  hostile,  and  he  prostrated 
with  the  tormenting  disease  which  had  returned 
with  violence,  unable  to  defend  himself  and  with 
this  bitter  arrow  in  his  heart." 

108.  "A   nature   as    intense    and   fiery    as   his 
knew  neither  surrender  nor  compromise. 

His  existence  was  bound  up  in  contest — it  was  in 
strife  alone  that  he  could  find  an  outlet  for  his  ag- 
gressive energy.  He  quarreled  with  Grant  over 
the  Santo  Domingo  affair."  (Idem.) 

109.  "No  men  living  are  more  worthy  to  be 
trusted  than  those  who  toil  up  from  poverty — 
none  less  inclined  to  take  or  to  touch  aught  which 

235 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

they  have  not  earned.  Let  them  beware  of  sur- 
rendering a  political  power  which  they  already 
possess  and  which  if  surrendered  will  surely  be 
used  to  close  the  door  of  advancement  against 
such  as  they  and  to  fix  new  disabilities  and  bur- 
dens upon  them  till  all  liberty  shall  be 
lost. 

"There  are  already  among  us  those  who,  if  the 
Union  be  preserved,  will  live  to  see  it  contain 
two  hundred  and  fifty  million  people.  The  strug- 
gle of  to-day  is  not  altogether  of  to-day — it  is 
for  a  vast  future  also."  (Lincoln's  Annual  Mes- 
sage to  Congress  December  3,  1861.) 

110.  "That  is  the  real  issue.  That  is  the  issue 
that  will  continue  in  this  country  when  these  poor 
tongues  of  Judge  Douglas  and  myself  shall  be  si- 
lent. It  is  the  eternal  struggle  between  these 
two  principles — right  and  wrong — throughout 
the  world.  They  are  the  two  principles  that 
have  stood  face  to  face  from  the  beginning  of 
time;  and  will  ever  continue  to  struggle.  The 
one  is  the  common  right  of  humanity,  and  the 
other  the  divine  right  of  kings.  It  is  the  same 
principle  in  whatever  shape  it  develops  itself.  It 
is  the  same  spirit  that  says,  'You  toil  and  work 
and  earn  bread,  and  I'll  eat  it.'  No  matter  in 
what  shape  it  comes,  whether  from  the  mouth  of 
a  king  who  seeks  to  bestride  the  people  of  his  own 
nation  and  live  by  the  fruit  of  their  labor,  or 
236 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

from  one  race  of  men  as  an  apology  for  enslaving 
another  race,  it  is  the  same  tyrannical  principle." 
(From  Lincoln's  reply  in  seventh  and  last  joint 
debate  with  Douglas.) 

111.  "They  [the  authors  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence]  meant  to  set  up  a  standard  for 
a  mixed  free  society  which  would  be  familiar  to 
all  and  revered  by  all.  .  .  .  The  assertion 
that  'all  men  are  created  equal'  was  of  no  practi- 
cal use  in  effecting  our  separation  from  Great 
Britain  ;  it  was  not  placed  in  the  Declaration  for 
that  purpose,  but  for  a  future  use.  Its  authors 
meant  it  to  be  —  as,  thank  God,  it  is  now  proving 
itself,  —  a  stumbling  block  to  all  those  who  in  af- 
ter times  might  seek  to  turn  a  free  people  back 
into  the  hateful  paths  of  despotism.  They  knew 
the  proneness  of  prosperity  to  breed  tyrants,  and 
they  meant  when  such  should  reappear  in  this  fair 
land  and  commence  their  vocation  they  should  have 
left  for  them  at  least  one  hard  nut  to  crack." 
(From  Lincoln's  speech  at  Springfield,  Illinois, 
June  26,  1857.) 


"There  is  one  point,  not  so  hackneyed  as 
others,  to  which  I  ask  a  brief  attention.  It  is 
the  effort  to  place  Capital  on  an  equal  footing 
with  if  not  above  Labor.  .  .  .  It  is  assumed 
that  Labor  is  available  only  in  connection  with 
Capital  ;  that  nobody  labors  unless  somebody  else, 

237 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

owning  capital,  somehow  by  the  use  of  it  induces 
him  to  labor.  .  .  .  Now  there  is  no  such 
relation  between  Labor  and  Capital  as  thus  as- 
sumed, nor  is  there  any  such  a  thing  as  a  free  man 
being  fixed  for  life  in  the  condition  of  a  hired  la- 
borer. Both  these  assumptions  are  false  and  the 
inferences  from  them  are  groundless.  Labor  is 
prior  to  and  independent  of  Capital.  Capital  is 
only  the  fruit  of  Labor,  and  could  never  have  ex- 
isted if  Labor  had  not  first  existed.  Labor  is 
the  superior  of  Capital  and  deserves  much  the 
higher  consideration.  Capital  has  its  rights, 
which  are  worthy  of  protection  the  same  as  any 
other  rights.  .  .  .  There  is  and  always  will 
be  a  relation  between  Labor  and  Capital  produc- 
ing mutual  benefits.  The  error  consists  in  as- 
suming that  the  whole  labor  of  a  community  ex- 
ists within  that  relation."  (Lincoln's  message 
to  Congress  December  3,  1861.) 

113.  "We  are  now  a  mighty  nation;  .  .  . 
we  are  about  thirty  millions  of  people  and  we 
own  and  inhabit  about  one-fifteenth  part  of  the 
dry  land  of  the  whole  earth.  .  .  .  We  have 
besides  these  men — descended  by  blood  from  our 
ancestors — among  us  perhaps  half  our  people 
who  are  not  descendants  at  all  from  these  men ; 
they  are  men  who  have  come  from  Europe, — 
German,  Irish,  French  and  Scandinavians, — men 
that  have  come  from  Europe  themselves,  or  whose 
238 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

ancestors  have  come.  .  .  .  But  when  they 
look  back  through  that  old  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, they  find  that  those  old  men  say  that 
'We  hold  this  truth  to  be  self-evident,  that  all 
men  are  created  equal,'  and  then  they  feel  that 
that  moral  sentiment  taught  in  that  day  evidences 
their  relation  to  these  men,  that  it  is  the  father 
of  all  moral  principle  in  them ;  they  find  they  have 
a  right  to  claim  it  as  though  they  were  blood  of 
the  blood  and  flesh  of  the  flesh  of  the  men  who 
wrote  that  Declaration,  and  so  they  are. 
Now  I  ask  you  in  all  soberness  if  all  these  things 
[the  insinuations  of  the  inequality  between  men 
caused  by  social  conditions]  if  indulged  in,  if  rat- 
ified, if  confirmed  and  endorsed,  if  taught  to  our 
children,  do  not  tend  to  rub  out  the  sentiment  of 
liberty  in  the  country  and  to  transform  this  gov- 
ernment into  a  government  of  some  other  form? 
These  arguments  that  are  made  that  an  inferior 
race  are  to  be  treated  with  as  much  allowance  as 
they  can  enjoy,  .  .  .  they  are  arguments 
that  kings  have  made  for  enslaving  people  in  all 
ages  of  the  world.  You  will  find  that  all  the  ar- 
guments in  favor  of  kingcraft  were  of  this  class ; 
they  always  bestrode  the  necks  of  the  people — 
not  that  they  wanted  to  do  it,  but  that  the  people 
were  better  off  for  being  ridden."  (From  Lin- 
coln's speech  at  Chicago,  July  10,  1858.) 

114.  "This  argument  of  the  Judge  [Douglas] 

239 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

is  the  same  old  serpent  that  says  'You  work  and 
I  eat,  you  toil  and  I  will  enjoy  the  fruits  of  it.' 
Turn  it  whatever  way  you  will — whether  it  come 
from  the  mouth  of  a  king,  an  excuse  for  enslaving 
the  people  of  his  country,  or  from  the  mouth  of 
the  men  of  one  race  as  a  reason  for  enslaving  an- 
other race,  it  is  all  the  same  old  serpent;  and  I 
hold  .  .  .  that  it  does  not  stop  with  the  ne- 
gro. I  should  like  to  know  where  it  will  stop  if 
one  man  says  it  does  not  mean  the  negro  [that  is, 
the  principle  of  being  created  equal]  why  not  an- 
other say  it  does  not  mean  some  other  man?  If 
that  declaration  is  not  truth  let  us  go  back  to 
the  statute  book  in  which  we  find  it  and  tear  it  out. 
Who  is  so  bold  as  to  do  it?  If  it  is  not  true,  let 
us  tear  it  out.  .  .  .  If  we  cannot  give  free- 
dom to  every  creature,  let  us  do  nothing  that  will 
impose  slavery  upon  any  other  creature.  Let  us 
turn  this  government  back  into  the  channel  in 
which  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  found  it. 
If  we  do  not  do  so,  we  are  tending  in  the 
opposite  direction,  .  .  .  working  in  the 
traces  that  tend  to  make  this  one  universal  slave 
nation.  Let  us  discard  all  these  things 
until  we  shall  once  more  stand  up  declaring  that 
all  men  are  created  equal."  (Idem.) 

115.  Hon.  Joseph  Choate,  then  ambassador  to 
England,  thus   describes  the  appearance  of  Lin- 
coln and  the  impression  he  made   on  being  first 
240 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

presented   to   a   New   York   audience   in   Cooper 
Union. 

"He  appeared  in  every  sense  of  the  word  one  of 
the  plain  people  among  whom  he  loved  to  be 
counted.  ...  It  was  a  great  audience,  in- 
cluding all  the  noted  men — all  the  learned  and 
cultured — of  his  party  in  New  York. 
For  an  hour  and  a  half  he  held  the  vast  audience 
in  the  hollow  of  his  hand.  His  style  of  speech 
and  manner  of  delivery  were  severely  simple. 
What  Lowell  called  'the  grand  simplicities  of  the 
Bible,'  with  which  he  was  so  familiar,  were  re- 
flected in  his  discourse.  ...  It  was  marvel- 
lous to  see  how  this  untutored  man  by  mere  self- 
discipline  and  the  chastening  of  his  own  spirit  had 
outgrown  all  meretricious  arts  and  found  his  way 
to  the  grandeur  and  strength  of  absolute  sim- 
plicity." 

116.  The  following  words  have  been  imputed 
to  Lincoln,  though  I  am  not  able  to  indicate  where 
in  his  speeches  they  may  be  found : 

"I  see  in  the  near  future  a  crisis  arising  which 
unnerves  me  and  causes  me  to  tremble  for  the 
safety  of  my  country.  As  a  result  of  the  war, 
corporations  have  been  enthroned  and  an  era  of 
corruption  in  high  places  will  follow,  and  the 
money  power  of  the  country  will  endeavor  to  pro- 
long its  reign  by  working  upon  the  prejudices  of 
the  people  until  all  wealth  is  aggregated  in  a  few 

241 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

hands  and  the  republic  destroyed.  I  feel  at  this 
time  more  anxiety  for  the  safety  of  my  country 
than  ever  before.  God  grant  that  my  fears  may 
prove  groundless." 

Even  if  these  are  not  his  exact  words,  anyone 
familiar  with  his  well  known  theories  of  govern- 
ment will  see  that  they  are  in  exact  accordance 
with  his  expressions. 

117.  "Poor  and  humbly  born,  he  had  to  make 
his  own  way  in  the  world.  ...  A  cadetship 
was  given  him  at  the  military  academy  of  West 
Point,  and  after  a  brief  period  of  service  in  the 
Mexican  war,  in  which  he  was  three  times  men- 
tioned in  despatches,  seeing  no  opening  for  a  sol- 
dier in  what  seemed  likely  to  be  days  of  unbroken 
peace,  he  settled  down  to  a  humble  life  in  a  pro- 
vincial town.  Citizens  of  St.  Louis  will  remem- 
ber the  rough  backwoodsman,  who  sold  cord  wood 
from  door  to  door  and  who  afterwards  became  a 
leather  seller  in  the  obscure  town  of  Galena. 
Those  who  knew  him  in  those  days  have  said  that 
if  anyone  had  predicted  that  the  silent,  unpros- 
perous,  unambitious  man,  whose  chief  aim  was  to 
get  a  plank  road  from  his  shop  to  the  railway 
station,  would  become  twice  President  of  the 
United  States  and  one  of  the  foremost  men  of  his 
day,  the  prophecy  would  have  seemed  extrava- 
gantly ridiculous."  (Canon  Farrar's  funeral 
oration  on  Grant.) 
242 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

118.  "Grant  possessed  in  a  striking  degree  the 
essential  characteristics  of  a  successful  soldier. 
His  self  reliance  was  one  of  his  pronounced  traits 
and  enabled  him  at  critical  moments  to  decide 
promptly  the  most  important  questions  without 
useless  delay  in  seeking  advice  from  others  and 
to  assume  the  gravest  responsibilities  without 
asking  anyone  to  share  them.  He  had  a  fertility 
of  resource  and  a  faculty  of  adapting  means  at 
hand  to  the  accomplishment  of  his  purposes  which 
contributed  no  small  share  to  his  success.  His 
moral  and  physical  courage  were  equal  to  every 
emergency  in  which  he  was  placed.  His  unassum- 
ing manner,  his  purity  of  character  and  absolute 
loyalty  to  his  superiors  and  to  the  work  in  which 
he  was  engaged,  inspired  loyalty  in  others  and 
gained  him  the  devotion  of  the  humblest  of  his 
subordinates.  He  was  singularly  calm  and  pa- 
tient under  all  circumstances,  was  never  unduly 
elated  by  victory  or  depressed  by  defeat, 
and  never  uttered  an  oath  or  an  imprecation. 
.  He  was  possessed  of  a  physical  constitu- 
tion that  enabled  him  to  endure  every  form  of 
fatigue  and  privation  incident  to  military  service. 
While  his  achievements  in  actual  battle 
eclipse  by  their  brilliance  the  strategy  and  grand 
tactics  employed  in  his  campaigns,  yet  the  ex- 
traordinary combinations  effected  and  the  skill  and 
boldness  exhibited  in  moving  large  armies  . 
entitle  him  to  as  much  credit  as  the  qualities  he 

243 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

displayed  in  the   face   of  the  enemy."      (Apple- 
ton's   "Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography.") 

119.  "What  verdict  history  may  pronounce  on 
him  as  a  politician,  I  know  not.     .     .     .     Some 
think  it  would  have  been  well  for  Grant  if  he  had 
died  in  1865  when  steeples  clanged  and  cities  were 
illuminated  and  congregations  rose  in  his  honor. 
Many  and  dark  clouds  overshadowed  the  last  of 
his  days — the  blow  of  financial  ruin,  the  dread 
that  men  should  suppose  that  he  had  tarnished 
his  reputation.     .     .     .     But  here  and  now  the 
voice  of  censure,  deserved  or  undeserved,  is  silent. 

Let    us     record    his     virtue     in    brass ; 

but  let  his  faults,  whatever  they  may 
have  been,  be  writ  in  water."  (From  Canon  Far- 
rar's  funeral  oration  on  Grant.) 

120.  "His  only  authentic  expression  of  opin- 
ion and  sentiment  on  the  subject  of  secession  is 
.     .     .     a   passage     ...     in    a   letter   to   his 
sister:     'We  are  now  in  a  state  of  war  which  will 
yield  to  nothing.     The  whole  South  is  in  a  state 
of  revolution,  into  which  Virginia,  after  a  long 
struggle,  has  been  drawn,  and  though  I  recognize 
no  necessity  for  this  state  of  things  and  would 
have  forborne  and  pleaded  to  the  end  for  redress 
of    grievances,    real    or    supposed,    yet,     .     .     . 
with  all  my  devotion  to  the  Union  and  the  feeling 
of  loyalty  and  duty  of  an  American  citizen,  I  have 

244 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

not  been  able  to  make  up  my  mind  to  raise  my 
hand  against  my  relatives,  my  children,  my  home. 
I  have,  therefore,  resigned  my  commission  in  the 
army  and  .  .  .  hope  I  may  never  be  called 
upon  to  draw  my  sword  save  in  defence  of  my  na- 
tive state.'  "  (Appleton's  "Cyclopaedia  of 
American  Biography.") 


.  "The  war  being  ended,  Lee  withdrew  at 
once  from  public  affairs,  betaking  himself  to  the 
work  of  a  simple  citizen,  not  morosely  or  in  sul- 
len vexation  of  spirit,  but  manfully  and  with  a 
firm  conviction  of  duty.  .  .  .  He  became 
president  of  Washington  College  at  Lexington, 
Virginia  (now  Washington  and  Lee  University), 
and  passed  the  remainder  of  his  life  as  an  earnest 
educator  of  youth.  .  .  .  He  was  modest  in 
the  estimation  of  himself,  but  not  lacking  in  that 
self-confidence  which  gives  strength.  ...  In 
manner  he  was  dignified,  courteous  and  perfectly 
simple  ;  in  temper  he  was  calm,  with  that  placidity 
of  strength  which  is  accustomed  to  self  control." 


.  "The  Union  or  Northern  troops  were 
completely  routed  at  Bull  Run;  there  was  con- 
sternation in  the  North  and  a  corresponding  ex- 
ultation in  the  South.  ...  It  was  at  this 
time  that  Grant  conquered  at  Vicksburg,  and 
Meade  won  at  Gettysburg.  ...  If  Lee  had 
beaten  Meade,  the  North  would  have  been  in  a 

245 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

panic  of  fear  and  the  Union  disrupted ;  but  as  Lee 
was  beaten,  the  Confederates  were  thereafter  on 
the  defensive.  The  Confederate  hope  was  not  ut- 
terly destroyed  at  Gettysburg;  had  the  issue  been 
different,  however,  Union  hope  would  have  been 
destroyed.  And  so  Gettysburg  was  one  of  the 
great  decisive  battles  of  the  world.  .  .  .  The 
victory  gained  by  Meade,  .  .  .  though  in  a 
purely  strategic  sense  not  a  decisive  victory  at  all, 
had  the  moral  effect  of  convincing  thousands  of 
doubters  that  there  was  still  hope  for  the  preser- 
vation of  the  Union,  while  politically  it  stopped 
Lee  in  a  movement  which  might  very  well  have 
ended  in  his  dictating  terms  of  peace  to  Lincoln's 
Cabinet  at  Washington.  .  .  .  By  this  re- 
markable series  of  bloody  struggles,  in  which  it 
is  said  the  losers  lost  some  fifteen  thousand  five 
hundred  men  killed  and  wounded  and  the  victors 
over  sixteen  thousand,  Lee's  invasion  of  the  North 
was  put  a  stop  to.  .  .  .  After  Gettysburg 
and  until  the  final  surrender  Lee  never  again 
found  himself  in  the  position  of  an  invader,  the 
Confederacy  being  thenceforth  on  the  defensive." 
(Creasy's  "Decisive  Battles.") 

"My  dear  General,  I  do  not  believe  you  appre- 
ciate the  magnitude  of  the  misfortune  involved  in 
Lee's  escape.     He  was  within  your  easy   grasp, 
and  to  have  closed  upon  him  would,  in  connection 
with  other  later  successes,  have  ended  the  war. 
Your  golden  opportunity  is  gone,  and  I 
246 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

am  distressed  immeasurably."      (Letter  of  Pres- 
ident Lincoln  to  General  Meade.) 


.  "The  army  of  northern  Virginia  was  re- 
duced by  famine,  disease,  death,  wounds  and  cap- 
ture, to  a  feeble  few.  These  struggled  against 
enormous  odds  with  almost  unexampled  fortitude, 
but  were  compelled  to  yield  to  overwhelming  num- 
bers and  strength.  A  portion  of  Sheridan's  cav- 
alry .  .  .  captured  four  Confederate  supply 
trains  at  Appomattox  Station.  .  .  .  Lee's 
vanguard  approaching  were  pushed  back  to  Ap- 
pomattox Court  House,  five  miles  northward,  near 
which  was  Lee's  main  army.  .  .  .  Sheridan 
hurried  forward  the  remainder  of  his  command, 
and  on  that  evening  he  stood  directly  across  Lee's 
pathway  of  retreat.  Lee's  last  avenue  of  escape 
was  closed,  and  on  the  following  day  he  met  Gen- 
eral Grant  at  Appomattox  Court  House  to  con- 
summate an  act  of  surrender.  .  .  .  The 
terms  prescribed  by  Grant  were  extraordinary 
in  their  leniency  and  magnanimity,  and 
Lee  was  much  touched  by  them."  (Harper's 
"Cyclopaedia  of  United  States  History.") 


"In  the  southern  states  the  confusion  was 
indescribable.  The  white  people,  were  endeavor- 
ing to  get  back  into  their  own  hands  the  political 
power  which  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
blacks  under  the  operation  of  the  reconstruction 

247 


laws  and  the  acts  of  Congress  disfranchising 
those  who  had  aided  and  abetted  the  recent  re- 
bellion. .  .  .  Dependent  as  they  [the  re- 
constructed governments]  were  upon  numerical 
strength  of  the  black  majorities,  made  up  of  ig- 
norant and  unintelligent  voters,  it  was  hardly 
possible  that  these  governments  could  long  with- 
stand the  attacks  of  the  determined  men  whose 
trained  political  sagacity  and  overpowering  una- 
nimity made  the  contest  between  the  opposing 
forces  very  unequal.  Secret  political  associa- 
tions, masked  and  disguised  under  various  titles, 
but  uniformly  bent  on  the  extinction  of  the  negro 
vote,  were  organized  in  nearly  all  the  southern 
states.  .  .  .  Loyal  southern  white  men  who 
had  stood  by  the  Federal  Union  more  or  less 
openly  during  the  dark  and  trying  times  of  the 
war  hesitated  to  lend  a  hand  to  support  the  col- 
ored voters  of  the  South  in  the  retention  of  their 
newly  secured  right  to  vote  and  hold  office." 
(Scribner's  "History  of  the  United  States.") 

125.  "It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  radical 
method  of  reconstruction  resorted  to  by  Congress 
occasioned  dreadful  evils.  Among  other  things 
it  ignored  the  natural  prejudices  of  the  whites, 
many  of  whom  were  as  loyal  as  any  citizens  in  the 
land.  The  South,  subjected  to  a  second  con- 
quest after  having  laid  down  its  arms,  felt  out- 
raged and  grew  sullen.  To  most  people  in  that 
248 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

section,  as  well  as  to  very  many  in  the  North,  this 
dictation  by  Congress  to  acknowledged  states  in 
time  of  peace  seemed  highhanded  and  guilty 
usurpation.  .  .  .  Black  legislatures  inevi- 
tably abused  their  power,  becoming  the  instruments 
of  carpet-bag  leaders  and  rings  in  robbing  white 
property  holders.  Nor  could  any  but  doctri- 
naires or  the  stupid  have  expected  that  the  whites 
would  long  submit  to  such  a  regime.  ...  In 
state  after  state  the  whites  .  .  .  recovered 
their  ancient  ascendency.  Where  their  aims 
could  not  be  realized  by  persuasion  or  other  mild 
means,  resort  was  had  to  merciless  intimidation 
and  violence.  The  Ku  Klux  Klan,  a  great  secret 
society,  was  organized  for  this  rough  business, 
numbering  .  .  .  among  its  abettors  or  mem- 
bers citizens  of  the  highest  respectability."  (An- 
drews' "History  of  the  United  States.") 


"Robert  Fulton  was  born  in  Little  Brit- 
ain, Lancaster  County,  Pennsylvania,  in  1765,  re- 
ceived a  common  school  education,  became  a  min- 
iature painter,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty  was  prac- 
ticing that  profession  in  Philadelphia. 
Then  he  went  to  England  and  studied  painting 
under  Benjamin  West,  became  a  civil  engineer, 
and  made  himself  familiar  with  the  steam  engine 
then  just  improved  by  Watt.  ;  ,  .  He  wrote 
and  published  essays  on  canals  and  canal  navi- 
gation. .  .  .  He  then  went  to  Paris  and  re- 

249 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

mained  seven  years,  .  .  .  studying  lan- 
guages and  invented  a  torpedo.  ...  In 
1807  he  perfected  his  steamboat  for  navigating 
the  Hudson,  having  been  aided  by  Robert  R.  Liv- 
ingston. .  .  .  Livingston  had  made  experi- 
ments with  steamboats  as  early  as  1798,  when  he 
was  granted  the  exclusive  privilege  of  navigating 
the  waters  of  the  State  by  steam.  Fulton  was 
finally  included  in  the  provisions  of  the  act,  and 
in  September,  1807,  the  Clermont,  the  first  steam- 
boat that  navigated  the  Hudson,  made  a  success- 
ful voyage  from  New  York  to  Albany  and  back." 
(Harper's  "Cyclopaedia  of  United  States  His- 
tory.") 


.  "Eli  Whitney,  inventor,  born  in  West- 
boro,  Massachusetts,  December  8,  1765. 
In  the  year  of  his  graduation  from  [Yale]  col- 
lege he  went  to  Georgia  and  became  an  inmate  of 
the  family  of  Mrs.  General  Greene,  and  there  in- 
vented his  Cotton  Gin  which  gave  a  wonderful  im- 
pulse to  the  cultivation  of  the  cotton  plant,  ren- 
dering it  an  enormous  item  in  the  foreign  and 
domestic  commerce  of  the  United  States.  The 
seeds  of  the  cotton  raised  in  the  United  States 
adhered  so  firmly  to  the  fibre  that  it  was  difficult 
to  separate  them  from  it.  The  seeds  were  sep- 
arated from  the  cotton-wool  by  the  slow  process 
of  picking  by  hand.  .  .  .  The  separation  of 
one  pound  of  wool  from  the  seeds  was  regarded 
250 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

as  a  good  day's  work  for  a  woman.  So  limited 
was  the  production  on  account  of  the  labor  that 
even  high  prices  did  not  stimulate  its  cultivation, 
and  the  entire  crop  on  the  United  States  in  1791 
was  about  two  million  pounds.  .  .  .  The  im- 
mediate influence  of  Whitney's  cotton  gin  .  . 
was  remarkable.  It  played  an  important  part  in 
the  social,  commercial  and  political  history  of  the 
country  for  over  seventy  years.  .  .  .  Its 
effects  upon  the  industrial  pursuits  of  nearly  one- 
half  the  nation  were  marvelous.  .  .  .  The 
cotton  gin  revived  the  dying  institution  of  slavery, 
and  made  cotton,  its  representative, 
king  of  the  nation,  and  for  fifty  years  swayed  an 
imperial  sceptre  almost  unchallenged."  (Idem.) 

128.  "Planters  came  from  all  parts  of  the 
South  to  see  the  wonderful  machine  which  could 
do  the  work  in  a  day  of  a  thousand  women.  The 
workshop  of  the  inventor  was  broken  into  and  the 
model  carried  off.  Imperfect  machines  were  made 
by  common  mechanics.  .  .  .  The  gin  was 
patented  before  any  [imitations]  were  made. 
The  violators  were  prosecuted,  but  packed  juries 
gave  verdicts  against  the  inventor.  Even  State 
legislatures  broke  their  bargains,  .  .  .  and 
when  Whitney  .  .  .  asked  Congress  for  an 
extension  of  his  patent,  the  members  of  the  cotton 
states,  whose  constituents  had  been  enriched  by 
the  invention,  vehemently  opposed  the  petitioner, 

251 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

and  it  failed.  .  .  .  Eli  Whitney,  a  Yankee 
schoolmaster,  built  the  throne  of  King  Cotton, 
but  was  denied  his  just  wages  by  the  subjects  of 
the  monarch."  (Idem.) 

129.  "Samuel  Morse,  founder  of  the  American 
system  of  electro-magnetic  telegraphy,  was  born 
in  Charlestown,  Massachusetts,  1791,  died  in  New 
York  City,  1872.  Mr.  Morse  first  engaged  in  the 
study  and  pursuit  of  art,  miniature  and  portrait 
painting,  and  gained  a  wide  reputation,  having 
painted  some  of  the  famous  portraits  that  now 
hang  in  the  public  galleries  of  the  nation.  He 
had  become  interested  in  the  study  of  electricity 
and  magnetism  while  at  college,  and  afterwards 
became  interested  in  the  lectures  of  Prof.  Dana 
before  the  New  York  Athenaeum.  It  was  while 
conversing  about  the  subject  of  these  lectures  that 
suddenly  the  notion  of  the  possibility  of  teleg- 
raphy entered  his  mind.  On  October  1,  1832, 
he  sailed  from  Havre  .  .  .  for  New  York 
and  among  his  fellow  passengers  was  Charles  T. 
Jackson,  then  lately  from  the  laboratories  of  the 
great  French  physicists,  where  he  had  made  spe- 
cial studies  in  electricity  and  magnetism.  A  con- 
versation in  the  early  part  of  the  voyage  turned 
on  the  recent  experiments  of  Ampere  with  the 
electro-magnet.  When  the  question  whether  the 
velocity  of  electricity  is  retarded  by  the  length  of 
the  wire  was  asked,  Dr.  Jackson  replied 
252 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

that  'electricity  passes  instantaneously  over  any 
length  of  wire.'  Morse  then  said,  'If  the  presence 
of  electricity  can  be  made  visible  in  any  part  of 
the  circuit,  I  see  no  reason  why  intelligence  may 
not  be  transmitted  by  electricity.'  The  idea  took 
fast  hold  of  him,  and  thenceforth  all  his  energies 
were  devoted  to  the  development  of  the  electric 
telegraph.  'If  it  will  go  ten  miles  without  stop- 
ping,' he  exclaimed,  'I  can  make  it  go  around  the 
world.'  '  (Appleton's  "Cyclopaedia  of  American 
Biography.") 

130.  "Thomas  A.  Edison,  born  in  Milan,  Ohio, 
in  1847 ;  had  no  school  education  whatever ;  be- 
gan life  as  a  newsboy,  selling  papers  on  the  train ; 
got  interested  in  telegraphy,  invented  the  system 
of  sending  dual  messages  over  the  same  wire,  in- 
terested capital,  settled  in  Menlo  Park,  where 
with  every  equipment  conceivable  for  research  and 
experiment  he  has  startled  the  world  with  his 
achievements. 

"His  inventions  are  many  and  varied.  His 
contributions  to  the  development  of  telegraphy 
are  represented  by  sixty  patents  and  caveats  as- 
signed to  the  Gold  and  Stock  Telegraph  Company 
of  New  York,  and  fifty  to  the  Automatic  Tele- 
graphy Company.  His  inventions  include  the  in- 
candescent electric  light,  the  carbon  telegraph 
transmitter,  the  micro-tasimeter  for  the  detec- 
tion of  small  changes  in  the  temperature,  the  meg- 

253 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

aphone  to  magnify  sound,  the  phonograph,  the 
patent  of  which  sold  for  $1,000,000,  the  aero- 
phone, the  kinetoscope,  etc.  On  September  £7, 
1889,  he  was  made  a  Chevalier  of  the  Legion  of 
Honor  by  the  French  government."  (Idem.) 

131.  "Aside  from  West  Virginia,  made  during 
the  war  from  the  loyal  part  of  Old  Virginia,  the 
new  states  taken  into  the  Union  since  1860  are: 
Kansas,  1861;  Nevada,  1864;  Nebraska,  1867; 
Colorado,  1876;  North  Dakota,  1889;  South  Da- 
kota, 1889 ;  Montana,  1889 ;  Washington,  1889  ; 
Idaho,  1890;  and  Wyoming,  1890.  The  whole 
number  of  states  has  become  thus  far  forty-four. 
We  have  also  in  the  year  1894*  four  organized  ter- 
ritories: Arizona,  New  Mexico,  Utah,  and  Okla- 
homa. [All  of  these  are  now  (1911)  states,  mak- 
ing the  whole  number  forty-eight.]  .  .  . 
Since  I860  there  has  been  a  steady  filling  up  of 
the  Pacific  Coast,  and  an  equally  continual  ex- 
tension of  population  to  the  west  on  this  side  the 
Rockies.  .  .  .  The  construction  of  the  five 
great  Pacific  railway  lines,  the  Northern,  the  Un- 
ion, the  Atlantic  and  Pacific,  the  Southern,  and 
the  Great  Northern,  with  their  branches,  has 
brought  into  valuable  employ  infinite  reaches  of 
fertile  land,  previously  as  good  as  desert- 
land  .  .  ."  (Andrews'  "History  of  the 
United  States.") 


254 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

132.  "For  more  than  a  century  Spain  had  been 
a  dying  nation  while  the  effect  of  her  rule,   or 
rather  misrule,  in  Cuba  was  a  menace  to  peace  and 
good  order  not  only  to  this  country,  but  of  every 
other    country    having    relations    with    the     is- 
land.    .     .     .     The  Ten  Years  War,  with  all  its 
cruelty  and  horrors,  had  ceased  purely  through 
the  exhaustion  of  the  insurgents,  only  to  be  re- 
commenced with  renewed  vigor,  with  the  insurrec- 
tion which  had  been  in  progress  for  two  years  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  late  war.     The  voice  of  civiliza- 
tion demanded  intervention.     .     .     .     The  char- 
acter of  the  war  waged  by  Spain  against  the  in- 
surgents was  cruel  and  often  barbarous,  despite 
the  warnings  given  by  our  nation  that  it  should  be 
conducted  in  a  humane  manner.     It  was  becoming 
a  war  of  extermination.     'The  Pearl  of  the  An- 
tilles' was  ruined  and  its  population  reduced  many 
hundreds  of  thousands  by  death,  in  many  cases  by 
starvation."     (Idem.) 

133.  "The  recent  war  with  Spain  was  the  logi- 
cal outcome   of  the   conditions   which   existed   in 
Cuba.     It  was  evident  not  only  to  this  country 
but  to  all  the  world,  that  Spanish  rule  on  this 
side  of  the  ocean  must  necessarily  cease  if  peace 
and  international  harmony  were  to  be  preserved. 
The  great   Spanish  nation  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury with  its  rich  possessions  encircling  the  globe, 
had  so   decayed  in  the  nineteenth  century  as   to 

255 


unfit  it  in  every  way,  physically  and  financially, 
to  control  not  only  Cuba  but  the  remain- 
ing colonies.  .  .  .  With  a  forbearance  which 
perhaps  no  other  nation  would  have  shown, 
we  had  preserved  the  strictest  neutrality  at  great 
cost,  with  much  loss  in  our  trade  relations.  On 
February  15,  1898,  the  world  was  startled  by  the 
blowing  up  of  the  Maine  of  the  United  States 
navy  in  the  harbor  of  Havana,  with  the  loss  of 
253  of  her  crew,  .  .  .  and  from  that  moment 
Spanish  rule  in  Cuba  was  doomed.  The  whole 
nation  with  one  voice  demanded  its  termina- 
tion. .  .  .  On  April  twenty-fifth  Congress 
declared  war.  .  .  .  On  July  twenty-sixth 
(1898)  the  Spanish  government  asked  for  terms 
of  peace.  .  .  .  On  December  tenth,  the  treaty 
of  peace  was  signed  in  Paris.  Porto  Rico  and 
the  Philippines  were  ceded  to  the  United  States, 
and  Cuba  became  a  free  and  independent  Repub- 
lic." (Harper's  "Cyclopaedia  of  United  States 
History.") 

134.  "Emilio  Aguinaldo,  leader  of  the  Philip- 
pine insurgents  against  Spanish  authority  and  or- 
ganizer and  president  of  the  so-called  Filipino 
Republic  .  .  .  presented  himself  to  Admiral 
Dewey  at  Cavite  shortly  before  the  battle  of  Ma- 
nila bay,  and  was  given  an  opportunity  to  or- 
ganize the  Filipinos  against  Spanish  author- 
ity. .  .  .  The  cruel  treatment  of  the  Spanish 
256 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

prisoners  by  the  Filipinos  and  their  claim  to  the 
right  of  sacking  the  city  after  the  capture  of 
Manila,  soon  caused  serious  trouble  in  the  rela- 
tions between  the  United  States  and  the  natives. 
On  June  12,  1898,  Aguinaldo  organized  his 
Filipino  Republic  with  himself  as  pres- 
ident and  soon  proclaimed  himself  as  dictator. 
He  protested  against  the  Spanish- Ameri- 
can treaty  of  peace  which  ceded  the  Philippine  Is- 
lands to  the  United  States,  and  on  the  eve  of  Feb- 
ruary fourth,  1899,  his  troops  attacked  the  Am- 
erican lines  in  the  suburbs  of  Manila. 
Aguinaldo  himself  was  captured  by  General  Fun- 
ston  on  March  twenty-third,  1901,  and  was  im- 
mediately taken  to  Manila."  (Harper's  "Cyclo- 
paedia of  United  States  History.") 

135.  Concerning  the  current  critical  moral  con- 
dition of  our  country,  Dr.  Washington  Gladden 
says  in  "The  New  Idolatry" :  "  'Mammon,  the 
least  erected  spirit  that  fell  from  Heaven,'  Milton 
calls  him.  To  him  the  homage  of  the  multitude  is 
given  with  no  reserve.  The  worship  of  Mammon 
is  the  one  stupendous  fact  of  this  generation. 
Men  do  believe  in  him ;  their  faith  is  sin- 
cere and  unswerving;  they  are  ready  to  prove  it 
every  day  by  their  works.  They  have  no  doubt 
of  his  power  or  his  supremacy ;  all  things  are  pos- 
sible, they  think,  to  those  who  secure  his  favor. 
That  he  holds  in  his  hands  the  real  good  of  life  for 

257 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

man,  and  that  there  is  no  real  happiness  for  any 
unless  they  propitiate  him,  is  the  first  article  of 
the  creed  of  the  great  majority.  It  is  not  the 
rich  or  the  prosperous  alone  who  hold  this  creed; 
the  poor  and  the  degraded  are  equally  ensnared 
by  it ;  their  expectations  of  good  are  concen- 
trated upon  the  same  potentate. 

"Never,  since  time  began,  has  his  worship  been 
so  widespread,  so  nearly  universal  as  it  is  to-day. 

"It  seems  to  be  a  time,  just  now,  for  some 
pretty  serious  thinking  on  the  part  of  Christian 
people,  respecting  this  form  of  idolatry.  None 
more  debasing  has  yet  appeared  before  men ;  its 
devastations  threaten  the  life  of  the  nation. 

"It  is  producing  social  and  political  disintegra- 
tion. It  is  sowing  dishonesty,  suspicion,  enmity. 
It  is  hurrying  us  on  the  paths  that  lead  to  an- 
archy. For  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that 
Mammon  cannot  rule.  Rule  implies  orderly 
governance,  and  what  Mammon  inevitably  brings 
is  disorder  and  strife  and  social  chaos.  A 
society  in  which  the  love  of  money  is  the  ruling 
passion  can  have  no  end  but  destruction." 

Says  Henry  George  in  "Progress  and 
Poverty":  "The  march  of  invention  has  clothed 
mankind  with  powers  of  which  a  century  ago  the 
boldest  imagination  could  not  have  dreamed. 
But  in  factories  where  labor  saving  machinery 
has  reached  it  most  wonderful  development,  little 
children  are  at  work ;  wherever  the  new  forces  are 
258 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

anything  like  fully  utilized,  large  classes  are  main- 
tained by  charity  or  live  on  the  verge  of  recourse 
to  it;  amid  the  greatest  accumulation  of  wealth, 
men  die  of  starvation,  and  puny  infants  suckle 
dry  breasts ;  while  everywhere  the  greed  of  gain, 
the  worship  of  wealth,  shows  the  force  of  the 
fear  of  want.  The  promised  land  flies  before  us 
like  the  mirage.  The  fruits  of  the  tree  of  knowl- 
edge turn  as  we  grasp  them  to  apples  of  Sodom 
that  crumble  at  the  touch. 

"So  long  as  all  the  increased  wealth  which 
modern  progress  brings  goes  to  build  up  great 
fortunes,  to  increase  luxury  and  make  sharper 
the  contrast  between  the  House  of  Have  and  the 
House  of  Want,  progress  is  not  real  and  cannot 
be  permanent.  The  reaction  must  come.  The 
tower  leans  from  its  foundations,  and  every  new 
story  but  hastens  to  the  final  catastrophe.  To 
educate  men  who  must  be  condemned  to  poverty, 
is  but  to  make  them  restive;  to  base  on  a  state 
of  most  glaring  social  inequality  political  institu- 
tions under  which  men  are  theoretically  equal,  is 
to  stand  a  pyramid  on  its  apex." 

Said  Senator  Robert  LaFollette  in  U.  S.  Sen- 
ate, March  1908: 

Mr.  President,  I  have  talked  in  vain  if  I  have  not 
made  plain  the  thought  that  there  is  just  one  issue 
before  the  country  to-day.  It  is  not  currency.  It 
is  not  tariff.  It  is  not  railroad  regulation.  These 

259 


THE  STORY  OF  AMERICA 

and  other  important  questions  are  but  phases  of  one 
great  conflict. 

Let  no  man  think  he  is  not  concerned;  that  his 
State  or  his  constituency  is  not  interested.  There 
is  no  remote  corner  of  this  country  where  the  power 
of  Special  Interest  is  not  encroaching  on  public 
rights. 

Let  no  man  think  this  is  a  question  of  party  pol- 
itics. It  strikes  down  to  the  very  foundation  of  our 
free  institutions.  The  System  knows  no  party.  It 
is  supplanting  government. 

Mr.  President,  I  think  I  may  say  without  risk  of 
being  misunderstood,  at  least  by  those  of  whom  I 
speak,  that  I  know  something  of  the  sentiment  of 
the  people  of  this  country. 

I  have  found  no  difference  of  opinion  among  them 
as  to  existing  conditions  and  the  causes  underlying 
it  all.  In  Wisconsin,  and  from  New  York  to  the 
Pacific  States,  the  people  I  have  met  hold  one  opin- 
ion, have  one  conviction. 

They  are  deeply  concerned.  They  understand. 
Men  back  of  the  System  seem  to  know  not  what 
they  do. 

In  their  strife  for  more  money,  more  power — 
more  power,  more  money — there  is  no  time  for 
thought,  for  reflection.  They  look  neither  forward 
nor  backward.  Government,  society,  and  the  indi- 
vidual are  swallowed  up  in  the  struggle  for  greater 
control.  The  plain  man  living  the  wholesome  life 
of  peace  and  contentment  has  a  better  perspective, 
a  saner  judgment.  He  has  ideals  and  conscience 
and  human  emotion.  Home,  children,  neighbors, 
friends,  church,  schools,  country,  constitute  life. 
260 


HISTORICAL  NOTES 

He  knows  very  definitely  the  conditions  affecting 
the  rights  guaranteed  him  by  the  Constitution,  but 
he  longs  for  expression,  he  longs  for  leadership. 

Blind  indeed  is  he  who  does  not  see  what  the  time 
portends.  He  who  would  remain  in  public  service 
must  serve  the  public,  not  the  System.  He  must 
serve  his  country,  not  Special  Interests. 


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